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EXTRACTS 



FROM THE 



History of Cincinnati 



AND THE 



TERRITORY OF OHIO, 



Showing the Trials and Hardships of the Pioneers in the 
Early Settlement of 



CINCINNATI AND THE WEST. 

By A. E. JONES, A. M., M. D. 



CINCINNATI : 

COHEN & CO. 

1888. 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, 
in the Office of the Librarian ot Congress, 
Washington, D. C, 1879. 



91 ft c-f 
( fj.f} 



PREFACE. 



T A 7HILE it is doubtless true that the story of the settlement of Cincin- 
nati has been often told, yet it must be admitted that but compara- 
tively few of our citizens have any definite knowledge of the events which 
first led to the exploration of the Ohio Valley, the causes which for so 
many years deferred its settlement, and the perils and hardships endured by 
the pioneers; while most of them are familiar with the more important histor- 
ical epochs. The ancient landmarks are being swept away by the demands 
of an ever increasing population. The old pioneers are falling like ripe grain 
before the sickle. Events of purely local interest are rapidly passing from 
memory ; and the fact that the settlement of Cincinnati marked an era in 
the history of our common country full of interest to all, has been lost 
sight of or disregarded. To remedy this, to present a truthful, impartial, 
and readable account of the historical events which gave the first impetus 
to settling the great Northwest ; the explorations of the Ohio Company ; the 
border wars, which so long prevented its actual occupancy ; its final settle- 
ment ; the campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne ; the hardships, the 
trials, and struggles of the pioneers, and their mode of life ; the names of 
the founders of the city ; its rapid growth and brilliant future, the author 
has devoted much time during the past several years, and the result of his 
labors are soon to be published in two large volumes. From the collection 
of historical facts colated for that purpose, the narrative contained in the 
following pages has been extracted, condensed, and published in a cheap 
form, to place within the reach of all matters of peculiar and particular 

interest in this centennial year. 

A. E. J. 



EXTRACTS 

FROM THE 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER I. 

Rival Claims of England and France to the Territory Northwest 

of the Ohio — Interference of Indian Traders With French 

Influence With the Indians. 
TZ)RIOR to the treaty between England and France, in 1763, the title to 

the territory northwest of the Ohio River, between the Allegheny 
Mountains and the Mississippi River, was claimed by both the nations. 
England claimed it by virtue of a treaty said to have been made by the 
Commissioners of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland with the Iroquois, 
or Six Nations, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1744. 

These Indians owned, or pretended to own, all the Northwest Territory 
as far west as the Mississippi River, and that southwest of the Ohio River 
as far south as the Car.olinas and Georgia. According to their traditions, 
these lands came into their possession and were held by right of conquest, 
their fathers, many years before, having conquered all the tribes possessing 
them. The right of the Six Nations to dispose of this territory has been a 
subject of much discussion ; but whether they had such rights is but of little 
consequence now, either to its present inhabitants or to the purpose of this 
work, further than will assist in showing by whom, and under what circum- 
stances the city of Cincinnati was first explored, and the difficulties that 
followed that exploration previous to its settlement. 

It is, however, certain that all the Indian tribes of the Northwest did not 
recognize as binding, the treaty of Lancaster, that of Logetown in 1752, 
that made at Winchester in 1753, nor yet that of Fort Stanwix in 1768. 
That such a treaty was entered into at Lancaster in 1744, by the parties 
already mentioned, there is no doubt, although it has been charged that it 

(5) 



6 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

was signed by the Indians while under die influence of spirituous liquors, a 
bounteous supply of which was furnished at the time by the Commissioners. 

The English strenuously insisted that the treaty was deliberately and 
fairly made, and that the Commissioners of Maryland paid two hundred and 
twenty pounds in gold, and those of Virginia two hundred and twenty 
pounds in gold, and the same amount in goods for the territory ceded. 

The French, on the other hand, as stoutly maintained that the same ter- 
ritory belonged to the Crown of France by right of discovery, claiming that 
La Salle, in 1682, and Padre Marquette and his colleague, Jolliete, subjects 
of France, had crossed from Canada to the Mississippi in 1683, and de- 
scended that river as far south as the Arkansas River; and that this, 
according to an alleged maxim of international law, gave France a valid and 
indisputable title to all lands watered and drained by the Mississippi and its 
tributaries; and as Ohio was one of these, therefore all the territory drained 
by the Ohio and its tributaries belonged of right to the Crown of France ; 
and furthermore, that the discovery of Marquette was nearly a century 
before the treaty with the Iroquois at Lancaster. 

To this claim of the French, England answered that John Cabot and his 
son, Sebastian, explored the Atlantic coast, in North America, from Labra- 
dor to Chesapeake Bay, in 1497, and had taken possession thereof in the name 
of the Crown of Great Britain ; and that by reason of this discovery all the 
lands from the Atlantic west to the Pacific Ocean belonged to Great Britain, 
and that in 1684 Lord Howe made a treaty with the Five Nations, when 
they placed themselves under the protection of the British Government, and 
at the same time executed a deed of sale to the British Government of a 
vast tract of land south and east of the Illinois River, extending north, 
across Lake Huron into Canada; and that another deed was made by the 
Chiefs of the Indian Confederacy in 1726, by which these same lands 
were conveyed in trust to England, to be protected and defended by his 
Majesty for the use of the grantors and their heirs ; and that France, at the 
treaty of Utrecht, had agreed not to invade the lands of the allies of Great 
Britain. 

The dispute, however, finally resolved itself into the questions : whether 
the tribes forming the Indian Confederacy were the allies of England, and 
whether they had conquered the tribes owning the territory in dispute. 

At the date of the treaty of Utrecht they were, unquestionably, allies of 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 7 

Great Britain; and the French, by invading these lands, violated one of the 
stipulations of that treaty, if the territory rightfully belonged to them. 

The evidence of their title, even by conquest, however, rested only on 
tradition, as they did not occupy the lands in dispute. Their claim may or 
may not have been just, and is one of those questions in history which can 
never be satisfactorily solved. 

Such were the flimsy foundations upon which England and France de- 
termined to maintain their respective claims, and which led to a long and 
bloody war. 

The most valuable part of the territory in dispute was between the great 
Lakes of the North and the Ohio River, inhabited by mixed tribes of savages, 
consisting of Delawares, Shawnees, Senecas, Mingoes, Iroquois and 
Miamies, over whom the French also pretended to hold a protectorate. 

French influence had, however, been seriously interfered with among 
them by traders from Pennsylvania, who had penetrated far into the western 
wilds, and becoming thoroughly acquainted with the Indian character, had 
established a lucrative traffic with them, carrying blankets, bright colored 
cloths, trinkets and ammunition (not forgetting whisky and rum) to the 
Indian towns, exchanging them for valuable furs, deer and buffalo skins. 

The traders, as a rule, were rough, lawless men, dressed in semi-Indian 
costume, and little better in their manners and habits than the Indians them- 
selves, and were exceedingly jealous of the interference of the French with 
what they claimed as their rights, acquired by the treaty of Lancaster be- 
tween the Iroquois and the Commissioners of Maryland, Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER II. 

Organization of the Old Ohio Company — Lawrence and Augustine 
Washington, Brothers of General George Washington, Members 
of the Company — Lawrence Washington's Liberal Policy. 

"C^ARLY in 1749, a grand scheme to colonize the western country was 
conceived by some of the most prominent men of Virginia, among 
whom were Thomas Lee, President of the Council of Virginia; Augustine 
and Lawrence Washington, elder brothers of George Washington; and John 
Hanbury, a wealthy merchant of London. 

An association was organized by these gentlemen under the name of the 
Ohio Company, now known as the Old Ohio Company, in contradistinction 
to another which adopted the same title, organized in Boston in 1786, com- 
posed principally of ex-revolutionary soldiers. 

The mother country encouraged this enterprise as one which would, if 
successful, enable it to possess itself of the coveted prize, and thereby more 
firmly establish the claims of England, by actual occupancy. 

A charter was issued to the company, and a grant made of six hundred 
thousand acres of land on the southeast side of the Ohio River, between the 
Monongahela and Kanawha Rivers, with the privilege, however, of taking 
a part of it on the northwest side of the Ohio. The conditions upon which 
the charter was issued, were that the company should settle one hundred 
families on the grant within seven years from the date of the charter, build 
a fort and maintain a sufficient force to protect the settlers, who were to pay 
no quit rent for ten years. 

Thomas Lee, one of the Commissioners who had made the *reaty with 
the Iroquois at Lancaster in 1744, was the leader in the movement until his 
death, which occurred soon after the organization of the company. After 
his death the management of its affairs devolved upon Lawrence Washington, 
the elder of the brothers. 

The wise and liberal policy adopted by Mr. Washington as manager gave 
great promise of success to the enterprise, and preparations were actively 
inaugurated to perfect the necessary arrangements to take possession and 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

commence the settlements. It was his desire to form colonies of Germans 
from Pennsylvania ; but here a difficulty presented itself which could not be 
easily overcome. The grant was within the jurisdiction of Virginia, in 
which the Church of England was established by law and maintained by 
tithes, and therefore settlers would be compelled to pay parish rates for the 
maintenance of the clergy; and the Germans of Pennsylvania, being dis- 
senters, were not willing to submit to this condition. Lawrence Washington 
sought to have them relieved from this tax, but without success. A single 
quotation from his writings at the time will serve to show his liberal and 
enlightened views : 

" It has ever been my opinion," said he, " and hope it ever will be, that 
restraints on conscience are cruel in regard to those on whom they are im- 
posed, and injurious to the country imposing them. England, Holland and 
Prussia, I may quote as examples, and much more Pennsylvania, which has 
flourished under delightful liberty so as to become the admiration of every 
man who considers the short time it has been settled. 

" This colony — Virginia — was greatly settled in the latter part of Charles 
the First's time, and during the usurpation, by the zealous churchmen, and 
that spirit which was then brought in, has ever since continued, so that, ex- 
cept a few Quakers, we have no dissenters. But what has been the conse- 
quence ? We have increased by slow degrees, while our neighboring colo 
dies, whose natural advantages are greatly inferior to ours, have become 
populous." 

While it is true that Lord Baltimore had promulgated and established the 
principles of religious freedom in Maryland, and it was tolerated in Pennsyl- 
vania previous to this, still the sentiments expressed in the foregoing quota- 
tions from Mr. Washington are remarkable as coming from a member of the 
Established Church of England ; and it is a striking coincidence that they 
should be almost identical with the principles contained in the ordinance of 
1787, under which the Northwest Territory was organized nearly thirty years 
afterward, and in the Constitution of the United States and State of Ohio, 
leaving to every man the right to worship God according to the dictates of 
his own conscience. 

General- George Washington was then a youth under the guidance and 
influence, in a great measure, of his brother, Lawrence, who took a parental 
interest in the education and direction of his youth. May not the early 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



teachings he then received have resulted in that liberal policy and love of 
liberty he ever manifested in his public life, and developed that remarkable 
character which so eminently qualified him to lead his countrymen to victory 
in their struggle for independence. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Ohio Company Employ Christopher Gist to Explore the Lands 

Northwest of the Ohio River as Far West as the Great Falls — 

Gist Explores the Lands Between the Two Miamis, and on the 

Kentucky River. 
T N the meantime the Ohio Company had been making preparations to 

carry out their scheme of colonization, and employed Christopher Gist, of 
Virginia, a hardy pioneer, and noted hunter and woodsman, who had 
much experience in dealing with the Indians, to explore the country on the 
northwest of the Ohio River, as far west as the Falls of the Ohio, now 
Louisville. 

He started from Virginia on the 31st day of October, 1750, traveling 
through an unbroken wilderness over the mountains, and crossed the Ohio 
River near Beaver Creek, below Pittsburg, and struck boldly out into the 
wilderness through the country now forming the great State of Ohio, exam- 
ining it as he traveled, until he reached Muskingum, a town of the Wyan- 
dots and Mingoes, where he met George Croghan, the agent of the Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania. 

Gist was well received by these tribes, as he was also by the Shawanees 
and Delawares, whom he visited with Croghan, at their town on the Scioto 
River. From the Shawanee town, at the mouth of the Scioto, Croghan and 
Gist traveled northwest near two hundred miles, crossing the Great Miama 
on a raft, swimming their horses, and arrived at the Indian town of Piqua, 
the principal town of the Twigtrees, a tribe of the Miamis, on the 17 th day 
of February, 1 75 1. 

In this journey Gist had favorable opportunities for examining a wide 
extent of territory, which, on his return to Virginia, he described as incom- 
parably fertile, covered with magnificent timber, watered by abundant 
creeks and rivulets, the forest and plains everywhere abounding in game 
and the streams with excellent fish, saying, "there was nothing wanting but 
cultivation to make it a delightful country." 

From Piqua Gist and Croghan returned to the Shawnee town, on the 
Scioto, from whence Gist pursued his course toward the Great Falls, noting 



I2 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

carefully the fitness of the country for cultivation, and the course and size 
of the streams emptying into the Ohio River. 

It was at this time, between the ioth and 14th of March, 1751, he ex- 
plored the country between the two Miamis, including the present site of 
Cincinnati, going up the Great Miami as far as Loramie Creek, forty six 
miles above the now city of Dayton, Ohio, and about one hundred miles 
above the mouth of that river. 

The country in the neighborhood of Loramie Creek was the hunting 
ground of the Piankashas, another tribe of the Miamis. The English 
erected a fort and trading post on this creek the next year, 1752. 

(list had been warned by the Shawnees not to go to the Falls, as there 
was at that time a party of warriors, allies of the French, hunting in that 
vicinity; and that if he did, he would surely lose his scalp. Notwith- 
standing this warning, he came down the Miami, and proceeded toward 
his destination; but when within about fifteen or twenty miles of the 
Falls, he discovered unmistakable evidences of the proximity of savages, 
and seeing their traps and hearing the report of their guns, lie changed his 
course, crossed the Ohio, and for six weeks followed up the Kentucky 
River, exploring the country bordering on its waters as far as Bluestone. 
This was nineteen years before Daniel and 'Squire Boone visited the same 
country. 

From Bluestone, Cist wended his* weary way to Virginia, crossing the 
Kanawha on a raft, reaching his home, on the Yadkin River, in May, only 
to find that the Indians had attacked the settlement and destroyed his house 
and property, but he soon learned that his family had escaped to a neighbor- 
ing settlement and was safe. 

It is possible, indeed highly probable, that French voyagers had navi 
gated the Ohio River in its whole length in their canoes prior to this time. 
as they had several trading posts below the Great Falls, on its banks ; but oi 
this there is no authentic account, and at best is mere conjecture. 

So far therefore, as is known, Christopher Gist was the first white man, 
either French, English, or American, who set foot upon, and explored, and 
published an account of the country between the two Miamis, in Hamilton 
County, where John Cleves Symmes made his purchase in 17S7, thirty-six 
years afterward, upon which Mathias Denman, Robert Patterson and Israel 
Ludlow surveyed the next year, >7SS, the town of Losantiville. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. ^ 

After Gist's return a report of his explorations was published in London 
in 1755, and in Philadelphia in 1756, which was the first authentic account 
given of the territory now composing the great State of Ohio, and created a 
great desire among colonists and emigrants to settle northwest of the Ohio, 
and especially in the Miami country. 

Many efforts had been made by the colonists and English to establish 
settlements in the territory now comprising our great State after Gist's ex- 
ploration, but all were unsuccessful. Thousands of pioneers had been 
murdered or captured and held prisoners. The borders of Pennsylvania 
and West Virginia had time and time again been almost totally depopulated 
by the tomahawk and seal ping-knife of the ruthless and bloodthirsty savages, 
instigated, as was probably justly believed, by the French, to prevent the 
colonists or English from permanently occupying any part of the territory. 
And thus it continued until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War. 
Hardships, trials and sufferings are sometimes, when we know it not, " bless- 
ings in disguise ;" and in looking back over the early history of our country 
and realizing the blessings we now enjoy, he who does not see the hand of 
providence in all this must indeed be skeptical, for had the British Govern- 
ment been enabled to establish permanent settlements in the northwest with 
people loyal to the crown of Great Britain, and to have erected forts manned 
by British soldiers previous to the struggle for independence, with their 
navy and army attacking our country in the east and north and loyal sub- 
jects in the west, aided by the hordes of savages then occupying it, coming 
upon the rear, the patriots of '76 could never have achieved the independence 
of the colonies. And even after the independence of the colonies had been 
acknowledged, and the coveted territory had been ceded to the United 
States, there seemed to be a higher power than man preventing its occupa- 
tion for some wise purpose. And not until the ordinance of 1787, making 
it an absolutely free territory where the clanking chains of slavery or invol- 
untary servitude should never be heard, and establishing civil and religious 
liberty had been adopted as the fundamental law of the land, where every 
man could worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience; 
where there were none to molest or make them afraid; and declaring that 
religion, morality and education were necessary to the happiness of a free 
people — not until that had been adopted was there permitted any settle- 
ment to be made in our glorious State. 



H 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER IV. 

English Emissaries Incite Indians to Murder Settlers in the North- 
west — Major Stites Explores Territory Between Mi amis — De- 
termines to Make Purchase — Visits Congress at New York- 
Prevails Upon John Cleves Symmes to Make Purchase. 
"\ A J HEN the Revolutionary War broke out the English incited the sav- 
ages to hostility against the Americans, furnishing them with arms 
and ammunition to murder those who might attempt to settle northwest of 
the Ohio; and during that long struggle no settlements were formed within 
the limits of the State of Ohio. When the war was over the whole of the 
northwest had been ceded to the United States of America by the treaty of 
Paris in 1783, and men again began to cast their eyes to this land of promise ; 
disappointment for a time, however, as before, was to be their doom. 

The Indians disregarded every treaty they had made, declaring the land 
was their own and did not belong to England, and that the British Govern- 
ment had no right to cede it to the United States. To this course there was 
no doubt they had been instigated by English emissaries who had still some 
hope that a republic would prove to be a failure and that they would once 
more possess our fair heritage ; and thus affairs continued until after the In- 
dian titles had been extinguished by the treaties of Fort Stanwix, Fort Mc- 
Kintosh, Muskingum and Fort Finney, and the ordinance of 1787 adopted. 
Virginia had on the 1st of March, 1784, magnanimously ceded her right 
and title to the Northwest, insisting upon this condition only, that contracts 
made with her continental soldiers should be held inviolable, and reserved 
tor their benefit all the lands on the Ohio between the Scioto and Little 
Miami Rivers. 

From the first exploration of the Miami country, made in 1751, the fer- 
tility of its soil had been well-known, and many were the pioneers who 
longed to settle thereon, but were prevented by the hostility of the Indians, 
incited by the English ; but now, as these difficulties had apparently disap- 
peared, explorers were again seeking it. 

In 1786 a company was organized in Boston by Generals Putnam, Par- 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



*5 



sons and the Rev. Dr. Cutler, composed principally of Revolutionary 
soldiers, to purchase territory on the Ohio River. They selected the mouth 
of the Muskingum, where they landed on the 7th of April, 1788, and made 
the first permanent settlement within the limits of the present State of Ohio. 

In 1786 Captain Benjamin Stites, of Red Stone (Brownsville), Pa., came 
down the river with provisions from the Monongahela River for the settlers, 
stopping at Lime Stone (Maysville, Ky.) While there the Indians had 
stolen many horses from settlers in Kentucky, and a party was organized 
and sent out to recapture them Captain Stites joined the party and fol- 
lowed on their track to the mouth of the Little Miami, thence up that stream 
for a considerable distance to Old Town, then across the country to the 
Great Miami above Hamilton, and down the Great Miami and Mill Creek 
to the Ohio River. In this expedition he noted the beauty of the country 
and fertility of the soil in the valleys of both Miamis, and was so pleased with 
what he had seen that he determined to make application to Congress for a 
purchase of land between the two. He could not obtain any east of the Lit- 
tle Miami, because that had been reserved by Virginia as a military district 
for soldiers on the Continental establishment (as it is designated in deeds 
and records). To make this purchase he traveled to New York on foot, as 
is claimed, where Congress was in session. 

Whether on foot or on horseback, he ''got there all the same" and 
made the acquaintance of John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, whom he 
requested to assist him in securing the purchase. 

After Judge Symmes had heard Captain Stites' glowing description of the 
Miami country he concluded the purchase had better not be made until he 
(Symmes) had seen it. In 1787 he visited the west and examined the terri- 
tory between the two Miamis and found, like the Queen of Sheba, that lo! 
"the half had not been told him," and immediately went back and made 
application in his own name to purchase two million acres between the two 
Miamis, and secured a contract for one million acres, which, after being sur- 
veyed between the designated boundaries, was found to contain less than 
600,000 acres. Of this tract he sold to Captain Stites 20,000 acres, as is 
shown by the following curious contract copied from the records of Hamilton 
County : 

"Whereas, Congress, by the resolutions of the 22d day of October, 
1787, directed the Commission of the Treasury Board to contract with John 



!6 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

C. Symmes for all the lands lying between the two Miami Rivers to a certain 
line which forms the north bend thereof, these may certify that if Captain 
Benjamin Stites shall raise certificates to pay for 20,000 acres of the same, 
or any larger quantity, he shall have it at the price agreed with the Treasury 
Board, which is five shillings per acre, making payment therefor, and in all 
things conforming to the conditions of the contract, with the Treasury Board, 
and also with the articles or conditions of the sale and settlement of the land, 
which will be published by John C. Symmes. On Captain Stites purchasing 
20,000 acres, or any larger quantity, he shall have the privilege of appoint- 
ing one surveyor to assist in running out the country, so far as the propor- 
tion he purchases shall be to the whole contract. 

"This surveyor shall be entitled to receive the same fees for his services 
as the other surveyors employed in that survey shall receive, as soon as 
credit or time of payment can be given, agreeable to the contract. Captain 
Stites shall have the benefit thereof as all other purchasers shall have, but 
this is not till after the two first payments. 

[Signed.] "John Cleves Symmes, 

"New York, 9th of November, 1787." 

This was followed by another contract made at Brunswick, N. J., on 
December 7, 1787 : 

"Captain Benjamin Stites enters 10,000 acres and the fraction on the 
Ohio and Little Miami Rivers, and is to take in Mr. John Carpenter as^one 
of his company, to be on line or sections on the Ohio and Little Miami from 
the point, and 10,000 acres on equal lines and sections at the mill stream 
falling into the Ohio between the Little and Great Miamis, which, when the 
certificates therefor are paid and the record book open, shall be recorded to 
him and to such of his company as join therefor. 

[Signed.] "John C. Symmes, 

"New Brunswick, 7th of December, 1787." 

Then there seems to have been a supplement without date or signature : 

"The last ten (10,000) thousand acres is to be taken in the following 
manner: Two sections at the mouth of Mill Creek, and the residue to begin 
four (4) miles from the Ohio up Mill Creek. Captain Stites takes four (4) 
sections on the Little Miami, with the fraction adjoining the ten (10,000) 
thousand acres where it comes to the Little Miami, and four sections with 

the section next above the range of township taken by Daniel , Esq., 

on the Little Miami." 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



17 



On the 8th of February, 1793, Captain Stites paid in full for his land, as 
will appear from the following receipt : 

"Cincinnati, February the 8th, 1793. 
"Received of Benjamin Stites, Esq., at different payments, certificates 
of debts due by the United States, to the amount of ten thousand six hundred 
and fifty-two dollars and twenty-three one-hundredths of a dollar, in payment 
for different parts of the Miami purchase lying, as may appear by location 
of Mr. Stites, ten thousand acres round Columbia, seven sections on the 
waters of Mill Creek for different people, as will appear by the Miami records, 
and about three or four sections in the neighborhood of Covalt's Station, and 
in cash orders and other articles to the amount of one hundred and fifty- 
eight pounds, eight shillings and eight pence, for which lands, accommo- 
dated to the several locations, I promise to make a deed in fee simple, as 
soon as I am enabled by receiving my deed from the United States. 
[Signed.] " John C. Symmes. 

"Attest: John S. Gano." 

In the summer of 1788 Captain Stites and his party launched their broad- 
horn boats on the waters of the Monongahela, and started on their journey to 
their future homes at the mouth of the Little Miami, and arrived in July at 
Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky. 

There he made clap-boards for roofs of their cabins, and drew up an 
article of agreement (which we have not been able to find), signed by thirty 
persons, agreeing to form a settlement at the mouth of the Little Miami. 
Some of them, however, backed out on account of reports circulated, as was 
said by Kentuckians interested in settlements in that territory, to the effect 
that a large party of hostile Indians were encamped at the Miami Those 
who remained faithful to their contract started from Limestone on the 16th 
day of November, 1788, and landed below the mouth of the Miami on the 
1 8th. 

Before arriving at the mouth of the Miami they sent forward three men 
in a canoe as scouts to ascertain if there were any Indians there encamped ; 
if there were, they were to signal those in the flatboats to keep near the Ken- 
tucky shore and pass on without landing, and if there were no Indians found 
those in the canoes were to land and the flatboats were to land also. One 
of the three in the canoe was Hezekiah Stites, brother of Captain Benjamin 
Stites, who, when the canoe struck the shore, immediately jumped on the 
land and therefore claimed to be the first settler who landed on the site of 



1 8 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

Columbia. The boats all having landed and been fastened. to the shore, they 
all joined in prayer, returning devout thanks for the safety of their perilous 
journey and arrival at their future home. After taking the necessary pre- 
cautions to prevent surprise by the Indians, they proceeded to erect a 
"block house" on the 19th of November in front of the present residence of 
Athen Stites, Esq., which is said to be the spot where they landed. 

A part of the men stood guard while the others worked on the block 
house. On the 24th of November it was about completed, and the women 
and children with their goods were moved into it. In the first directory of 
the city of Cincinnati, published in October, 1819, the names of the " First 
Settlers of Columbia" are given as "Major Benjamin Stites, James H. Bailey, 
Hezekiah Stites, Daniel Shoemaker, Elijah Stites, Owen Owens, John S. 
Gano, three women, a number of small children, and several other persons 
whose names are forgotten." In a work published by Robert Clarke, Esq., 
of Cincinnati, in 1872, and kindly furnished me by that gentlemen, the 
following appears as the names of "The Early Settlers of Columbia:" 

James H. Bailey, Zephu Ball, Jonas Ball, James Bowman, Edward Bux- 
ton, W. Coleman, Benjamin Davis, David Davis, Owen Davis, Samuel 
Davis, Francis Dunlavy, Hugh Dunn, Isaac Ferris, John Ferris, James 
Flinn, Gabriel Foster, Luke Foster, John S. Gano, Mr. Newell, John 
Phillips, Jonathan Pitman, Benjamin F. Randolph, James Seward, William 
Goforth, Daniel Griffin, Joseph Grove, John Hardin, Cornelius Murley, 
David Jennings, Henry Jennings, Levi Jennings, Ezekial Larned, John 
McCullough, John Manning, James Mathews, Aaron Mercer, Elijah Mills, 
[chabod Miller, Patrick Moore, William Moore, John Morris, Benjamin 
Stites, Thomas C. Wade, John Web, Wickersham. 

Some of these, no doubt, made up the number of those who came down 
with Captain Stites. They found no Indians on their arrival ; there was, 
however, an encampment of Indians some six miles back from the Ohio 
River, who soon discovered the boats of Captain Stites. They had with 
them a white man called "George," who had been taken prisoner twelve 
years before, when a boy. They sent "George" near the blockhouse to 
have a talk with their white brothers. He called in English to some men at 
work, but they, supposing him to be one of their own party, gave him a 
rough answer, when he and the Indians with him fled to their encampment. 
In a few days afterward several engineers went out hunting, and, when some 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



r 9 



distance from the block house, a party of Indians on horseback discovered 
their trail and soon came up with them. 

The engineers thought they were hostile, and prepared for defense. 
John Hamson and Mr. Cox leveled their guns at them, and one of the 
Indians trailed his gun, took off his cap, and extended his hand in a 
friendly manner, "George" telling Hamson not to shoot, they were 
friendly, and wanted to be taken to the block house. Becoming satisfied 
that they had no hostile intentions, they took them to the block house, and 
the whites and Indians soon became very friendly, the hunters lodging fre- 
quently in their camps when out hunting, and the Indians spending days 
and nights in the block house and cabins of the settlers, with their squaws 
and papooses, regaling themselves on "old Monongahela whiskey." 

The pioneers had already suffered many hardships, to be followed by 
still greater trials and sufferings ; of this hereafter. 



20 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER V. 

The Purchase and Settlement of Cincinnati. 

TN January, 1788, Mathias Denman, of Essex County, New Jersey, pur- 
chased of John Cleves Symmes, fractional No. 17, and section No. 18, 
in the fourth township, and first fractional range east of the Great Miami 
River, lying on the northwest side of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the 
Licking River. Denman, it appears, claimed to have warrants for the 
Section, but failed to enter them until after Judge Symmes had made his 
Miami Purchase of Congress, in which they were included. He paid 
Judge Symmes five shillings, New Jersey currency, or sixty-six and two- 
thirds cents, per acre, in Continental certificates for the land. 

Fractional section No. 17 laid along the Ohio River, extending from the 
present gas works property to a point on the river south of the corner of 
Front and Broadway ; thence to said corner ; thence west crossing Second, 
Third, and Fourth Streets diagonally, to a point near the middle of the 
square bounded by Smith, Park, Fourth, and Fifth Streets, near the south- 
west corner of the Holy Trinity church and school property, *whi< b 
fronts on Fifth, between Smith and Park Streets ; thence south through the 
gas works property to the Ohio River, two thousand feet west of Central 
Avenue. 

Section No. 18 laid immediately north, and adjoining fractional No. 17, 
and extended north to Liberty Street. 

These two sections composed the territory upon which Denman proposed 
to lay off a town, and from which he also proposed to establish a ferry 
across the Ohio to the mouth of the Licking River, in Kentucky- — the 
latter, probably, the greater inducement to make the purchase, for the reason 
that the old Indian trail from Detroit to Kentucky struck the Ohio at this 
point; it was also where the troops under General George Rogers Clark 
crossed the Ohio on their raids against the Indians on the Miamis, and 
would, in all probability, be on the line of communication between settle- 
ments that would be made on the Miamis, and those already established at 
Lexington, Boonesboro, and other places in Kentucky, there being at that 



HISTOR Y OF CJNCINNA TI. 2 x 

time no other prominent crossing between it and Limestone, now Maysville, 
Kentucky. 

In the summer of 1788 Denman, with several other parties, left New 
Jersey and New York for the purpose of settling his purchase and laying 
off the town, arriving at Limestone in the early part of August. On the 
25th of August Denman sold the undivided two-thirds interest in his 
purchase to Colonel Robert Patterson and John Filson, both then residing 
in Lexington, Kentucky, for the price, and on the terms and conditions 
contained in the following covenant and article of agreement : 

"A covenant and agreement made and concluded this 25th day of August, 
1788, between Mathias Denman, of Essex County, New Jersey State, of the 
one part, and Robert Patterson and John Filson, of Lexington, Fayette 
County, Kentucky, of the other part, witnesseth : That the aforesaid 
Mathias Denman having made entry of a tract of land on the northwest side 
of the Ohio, opposite the mouth of the Licking River, in that district in 
which Judge Symmes has purchased from Congress, and being seized 
thereof by right of entry, to contain six hundred and forty acres, and the 
fractional parts that may pertain, does grant, bargain and sell the full two- 
thirds interest thereof, by an equal, undivided right, in partnership unto the 
said Robert Patterson and John Filson, their heirs and assigns; and upon 
producing indisputable testimony of his, the said Denman's indisputable 
right and title to the said premises, they, the said Patterson and Filson, shall 
pay the sum of ^20, Virginia money, to the said Denman, or his heirs, or 
assigns, as a full remittance of money by him advanced in payment of said 
lands; every other institution, determination and regulation respecting the 
laying off of the town and establishing a ferry at and upon the premises to 
the result of the united advice and consent of the parties in the covenant 
aforesaid, and by these presents the parties bind themselves to the perform- 
ance of these covenants to each other in the penal sum of ^1000, specie, 
hereunto affixing their hands and seals, the day and year above mentioned. 
Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of Henry Owen, Abe 
McConnell. "Mathias Denman, 

" R. Patterson, 
"John Filson." 

The boundaries of the purchase were as follows : Beginning at the Ohio 
River at the foot of Broadway, thence north to the intersection of Hunt and 
Liberty Streets, at the northeast corner of the property and late homestead of 
Hon. George H. Pendleton ; thence west along Liberty Street to a point two 



22 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

hundred feet west of Central Avenue; thence south on a parallel line to the 
eastern boundary to the Ohio River at the southwest corner of fractional 
section No. 1 7 ; thence east along the Ohio River to the place of beginning, 
at the foot of Broadway. 

According to the land warrants held by Denman and entered in his 
behalf by Colonel Ludlow in 1790 and 1 79 1, fractional No. 17 contained 
107 8-10 of an acre, and section No. 18, being a complete section, contained 
640 acres. The records of Hamilton County show these entries to have 
been made as follows : 

"May 22, 1790, Israel Ludlow, on behalf of Mathias Denman, of New 
Jersey, presented for entry and location a warrant for 640 acres of land, by 
virtue of which he locates the eighteenth section in the fourth township cast 
of the Great Miami, in the first fractional range, being the first mile from the 
Ohio River, number of warrant 538." 

"1791, April 4th, Captain Israel Ludlow, on behalf of Mr. Mathias 
Denman, of New Jersey, presented for entry a warrant for one fraction of a 
section of 107 8-10 acres of land, by virtue of which he locates the seven- 
teenth fractional section in the fourth township east of the Great Miami, in 
the first fractional range of townships on the Ohio River, number of warrant 
192." 

Appended to this last entry on the records is the following significant 

note : 

" Cincinnati stands partly on this fraction. There is a great deal more 
in this fraction than 107 8-10 acres, and nearer 160 acres, and which lias 
not been paid for all over 107 8-10 acres." 

If these warrants represent the correct number of acres in fractional No. 
17 and section No. 18, there were in the purchase and original town plat 
747 8-10 acres, instead of 740 acres as has been stated, making the aggre- 
gate cost, at five shillings, or sixty-six and two-thirds cents per acre, New 
Jersey currency, $498.53)^. But as the payment was made in Continental 
certificates, worth at that time only five shillings to the pound, the actual 
cost in specie was $124.63, or sixteen and two-thirds cents per acre; but the 
cost to Denman may have been, and probably was, much less, as he no 
doubt purchased these certificates at a heavy discount. 

On the 6th day of September, 1788, the proprietor of the Denman tract 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



2 3 



issued the following notice in the Kentucky Gazette, published at that time at 
Lexington : 

NOTICE. 

The subscribers being proprietors of a tract of land opposite the mouth 
of the Licking River, on the northwest of the Ohio, have determined to lay 
off a town on that excellent situation. 

The local and natural advantages speak its future prosperity, being equal, 
if not superior, to any on the banks of the Ohio between the Miamis. 

The in-lots to be each half an acre, and the out-lots four acres, thirty of 
each to be given to settlers upon paying $1.50 for survey and deed of each 
lot. The 15th day of September is appointed for a large company to meet 
at Lexington and make out a road from there to the mouth of the Licking, 
provided Judge Symmes arrives, being daily expected. When the town is 
laid off lots will be given to such as may become residents before the 1st of 
April next. Mathias Denman, 

R. Patterson, 
John Filson. 
Lexington, September 6, 1788. 

John Filson, one of the proprietors, was a surveyor and schoolmaster, 
and made some pretensions to classical knowledge. He suggested that the 
name be Losantiville, as significant of its location. This word he com- 
posed of the French "ville," town or village, the Latin "anti," opposite, 
and the " os " mouth, L for Licking. Putting these together in a peculiar 
manner he formed the word "L-os-anti-ville," to signify the town or village 
opposite the mouth of the Licking. Although composed of words from three 
different languages it was, as a whole, original, and very clearly an Ameri- 
canism. His suggestion was accepted by the other proprietors, and Los- 
antiville adopted as the name of the proposed town, by which it was known 
until changed by General Arthur St. Clair, January 2d, 1790. 

Upon this point, however, there has been considerable controversy, it 
having been asserted that subsequent to the death of John Filson, which 
occurred before the settlement was made, it was not called by that name. 
This assertion is evidently erroneous, for we find in the articles of agreement 
made between Denman, Patterson and Ludlow (proprietors after Filson's 
death) and those proposing to become settlers, it is called Losantiburg and 
Losantiville; and in the report of the drawing of the thirty in and out dona- 
tion lots on the 7th day of January, 1789, it is called Losantiville by the 
proprietors. Judge Symmes, the original purchaser of the territory between 



24 



HI ST OR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 



the Miami's, in his letters to Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, one of his 
associates, dated North Bend, May 18th, 19th and 20th, 1789, mentions the 
town frequently, and in every instance calls it Losantiville. 

Dr. Daniel Drake, a very early settler, and one of the most learned, 
influential and reliable citizens, in a letter to Mr. Charles Cist, dated January 
2d, 1 841, says "that from the date of settlement until the 2d day of 
January, 1790, the place bore the name of Losantiville, and no other. 
It was then changed to Cincinnati by Governor St. Clair." With such 
testimony it can scarcely be doubted that the town bore the name invented 
by Filson, and adopted by the other proprietors until changed, as suggested 
by General Arthur St. Clair, then Governor of the Northwest Territory, as 
stated by Dr. Drake. 

Judge Symmes did not arrive on the 15th, and it was therefore postponed 
to September 22d, 1788. John C. Symmes, Israel Ludlow, Colonel Robert 
Patterson, Mathias Denman, John Filson, Benjamin Stites, with some sixty 
other persons, met at the mouth of the Licking and embarked for the Great 
Miami, where they landed and spent several days exploring the country in 
that vicinity. 

One party, led by Colonel Ludlow and Denman, proceeded to explore 
and survey the meanderings of the Ohio between the two Miamis. While 
Judge Symmes and others, John Filson among them, went back from the 
Ohio to examine the country on the Great Miami. 

By some means John Filson got separated from the party. Judge Symmes 
states that he feared the Indians and started alone to return to the mouth of 
the Licking, that he got lost and was murdered by the Indians. 

Whatever may have been the cause of separation, or his fate, it is certain 
that he never was heard of afterward. 

Whether killed by savages immediately or carried far away into the 
interior to suffer all the tortures of savage barbarity, or bewildered and lost, 
and perished in the wilderness, can now never be known. It is, however, a 
singular, indeed, a remarkable fact, that although the settlers had intercourse 
with all the tribes of Ohio and the Northwest, from the time of the first 
settlement until their final removal from the State, no tidings could ever be 
gained of the fate of Filson ; and from this fact it might be conjectured that 
he was not murdered by the Indians, but lost in the wilderness, and perished 
from hunger and exposure, and his body devoured by wild beasts, or, per- 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



25 



haps, may have been drowned in the Great Miami. Filson was a surveyor, 
and was to lay off the projected town, as well as act as a general agent for 
Denman and Patterson. His loss, therefore, was a serious impediment to 
the enterprise, and necessitated the employment of another surveyor. 

Colonel Patterson, in the case between Joel Williams and Cincinnati, in 
1807, testified that — 

"When it became certain that John Filson would never return, they 
found it necessary to secure the services of another surveyor, and as Filson's 
brother and heir had said to him that he was satisfied his brother had been 
killed, and had paid nothing on his interest, he (the brother) would relin- 
quish all claims to any interest in the land as Filson's heir. They, therefore, 
took Colonel Israel Ludlow as a partner, on the same conditions they had 
Filson, as a surveyor and general agent; and in this way Colonel Ludlow, 
who had come out as a surveyor for Judge Symmes, became a joint and 
equal owner with himself and Denman in the land purchased by Denman." 

This arrangement having been entered into, preparations were made to 
begin the settlement, and the proprietors before leaving Limestone proposed 
the following agreement to be entered into between themselves and the 
parties proposing to settle on the land : 

ARTICLE OF AGREEMENT. 

"The conditions for settling the town of Losantiburg are as follows, viz. : 
That the thirty in and out lots of said town to as many of the most early 
adventurers shall be given by the proprietors, Messrs. Ludlow, Denman and 
Patterson, who, for their part, do agree to make a deed in fee simple, clear 
of all charge and incumbrances, except the expense of surveying and deed- 
ing the same, as soon as Judge Symmes can obtain a deed from Congress. 

' ' The lot-holders, for their part, do agree to become actual settlers on 
the premises. They shall plant and attend two crops successively, and not 
less than an acre shall be cultivated for each crop ; and within two years of 
the date hereof, each person who receives a donation lot or lots, shall build 
a house equal to twenty-five feet square, one and one-half stories high, with 
brick, stone or clay chimneys; which house shall stand on the front parts of 
their respective lots, and shall be put in tenable repair, all within a term of 
two years. These requirements shall be minutely complied with on penalty 
of forfeiture, unless it be found impracticable on account of savage 
depredations."' 

Although not signed at Limestone, these conditions appear to have been 
tacitly agreed to by both parties; and, assured by frequent messages from 



26 HIST OR V OF C INC INN A TI 

Major Stites to Judge Symmes that the settlement at Columbia was success- 
ful and not molested by Indians, the proprietors resolved to begin the 
settlement " opposite the mouth of the Licking," and on the 24th of Decem- 
ber, 1788, Colonel Robert Patterson, Israel Ludlow, William McMillan, Wm. 
Connell, Francis Hardesty, Matthew Fowler, Isaac Tuttle, Captain Henry, 
Evan Shelby, Luther Kitchell, Elijah Martin, James Carpenter, John Vance, 
Noah Badgely, Thomas Gizzle, Joel Williams, Sylvester White, Matthew 
Campbell, Samuel Mooney, Henry Lindsey, Joseph Thornton, Samuel 
Blackburn, Scott Traverse, John Porter, Daniel Shoemaker and Ephraim 
Kibby embarked on their "broad-horn" boats, cut the grapevine cables and 
fearlessly pushed out into the current, amid heavy floating ice which filled 
the river from shore to shore, and were borne down the Ohio to their place 
of destination, after many perilous escapes from the heavy floating ice, 
where they landed in a cove on the northwestern shore on the 28th day of 
December, 1788. The place where the landing was made, for many years 
afterwards, was known as " Yeatman's Cove," at the foot of Sycamore 
Street, because Yeatman's Tavern was situated there. Then and there, in 
the (hilling winds of December, 

"Amid the sea-like solitude," 
these hardy pioneers began the settlement and founded the village of 
Losantiville — the town opposite the mouth of the Licking — now the great 
and beautiful City of Cincinnati, the " Paris of America." 



HIST OR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 2 7 



CHAPTER VI. 

Character of Settlers — First House Built. 

/^HEERLESS indeed was die prospect before these brave men; the earth 
^"^ covered with snow, the river full of heavy floating ice, the fierce 
winter blasts whistling through the unbroken wilderness, that on every side 
seemed impenetrable, the night made more hideous in its winter solitude by 
the growl of the bear, the scream of the panther, or the howl of the hungry 
wolf, made their situation unpleasant in the extreme. Men less courageous, 
less determined, would have shrank from the dangers and hardships they 
knew must be met and endured for months, perhaps years, in this, their far- 
off land, before they could enjoy the most ordinary necessaries of life, 
much less its comforts and luxuries. But with danger, deprivation, and 
fatigue they were familiar. 

Humble the lot, yet their's the race 

When Liberty sent forth her cry, 
Who thronged in conflict's deadliest place, 

To fight, to bleed, to die ; 
Who cumbered Bunker's height of red, 
By hope through weary years were led, 

And witnessed Yorktown's sun 
Blaze on a nation's banner spread, 

A nation's freedom won. 

The hardships endured in the war for independence by the pioneers of 
the west, in which nearly all of them had participated, had inured them to 
deprivations, and prepared them for whatever trials and sufferings might be 
incident to the settlement of an unbroken wilderness far away from civilized 
life. They had experienced the perils of a seven year's war. They had 
mingled in the smoke of the contest. They had endured summer's heat, 
and the frosts and storms of many winters^ with the earth for their couches 
and the heavens for their covering. They had spent their fortunes in the 
service of their country, and had nothing left but their lives, stout hearts, 
willing hands, and indomitable energy. Business of every kind was pros- 
trate in the older States; commerce had been destroyed by the war, and at 
that time there were no manufactories. They had, therefore, no resource 



2 8 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

left by which to gain an honorable living but that of agriculture, and no- 
where could they find so favorable prospects for this as in the Northwest 
Territory, with its incomparably fertile soil and genial climate. 

The ordinance of 1787 had made it absolutely free. Slavery and invol- 
untary servitude were forever forbidden, and could not be introduced to 
compete with honest free labor. It had provided for the education of their 
children ; it established liberty of conscience. The lands belonged to the 
general government they fought to establish. They needed no capital but 
the rifle and the axe, and their unconquerable pluck. With the rifle they 
could defend themselves from savages, and procure food from the wild 
game that abounded in the forests, until the land could be cleared and 
crops raised. With the axe the mighty forests could be felled to open 
farms, and prepare the material with which to erect their dwellings. 
Accustomed as they were to exposure, they needed not fine residences. 
Cabins would be palaces to them; their humble fare, luxuries when seasoned 
by the consciousness that they were independent, and that beneath the 
banner of civil and religious liberty every man could worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of his own conscience, where "there were none to 
molest or make him afraid." Such were the men who landed at the cove 
at the foot of Sycamore Street, on that bleak and cold 28th day of Decem- 
ber, 1788, and founded this beautiful city. 

Securing their boats to the shore, they spent their first night in them, and 
on the next day (the 29th) they built a kind of shelter of boards on 
the beach, under the bluff bank, as shown in the frontispiece, felled 
trees, and began the erection of a small cabin on the south side of Front 
Street, just east of Main, for the use of Colonel Ludlow and his assistant 
surveyors. This was the first house built in Cincinnati as a dwelling, 
and stood for a great many years afterward, having a board nailed on the 
stick chimney marked 1788. What year it was torn down there is no means 
of ascertaining, although several of the old pioneers still living, remember 
the house, or more properly speaking, the old cabin, very distinctly. There 
does not seem to have been but two others built for some time afterwards, 
from such testimony as can be gathered. There are, however, traditions 
that there had been cabins built on it before the landing of the pioneers. 
In the reminiscences of Mr. Abraham Thomas, he says that he was in the 
first expedition of General George Rogers Clark against the Indians on the 




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H 

o 
o 



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pq 



o 






HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 



29 



Great Miami, in 1780; that in that expedition they built a stockade fort; that 
he was also in the second expedition of General Clark, in 1782. They crossed 
the Ohio at the present site of Cincinnati, where their stockade had been 
kept up, and a few people lived in log cabins. The stockade was built at 
the foot of Sycamore Street for the purpose of storing provisions and to 
shelter the wounded of McGary's command. As the expedition ascended 
the Ohio River from the great falls, McGary crossed on to the Indian side, 
as it was called, to hunt, contrary to the advice of General Clark, and when 
near North Bend was fired upon by savages, and several men were wounded, 
some killed and scalped. General Clark crossed to their assistance as 
speedily as possible, but the Indians gave the scalp halloo, and disappeared 
over the hills. To protect these wounded and their prisoners the stockade 
was built and left in charge of Thomas Vicroy, commissary of Clark's army, 
whilst he marched against the Indians at Pickway. 

Who the few people were Mr. Thomas fails to tell us ; but nowhere else 
in the history of Clark's expedition, or any history found, is there any 
account of cabins having been built on the site of Cincinnati before 1788. 
But as he says the stockade of the previous expedition had been kept up, it 
is probable that the cabins were built by parties whom General Clark may 
have left in charge of it. Whether there were cabins or not built in 1782, it 
is certain that when the founders of Cincinnati landed in 1788 there were 
no evidences of buildings other than the remains of the stockade, and that 
the cabin shown in the cut, and the location designated, was the first built 
in the city with the purpose of establishing a permanent settlement. 



3° 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Incidents Which Occurred on the Site of Cincinnati Before the 

Settlement. 

O EVERAL interesting incidents occurred on the site of Cincinnati and in 
^■""^ the vicinity previous to the settlement. The first of which we have any 
authentic account was the battle with the savages on the southern bank of 
the Ohio, where Dayton, Ky., is located, in 1779. 

The Governor of Virginia sent Colonel Rogers to New Orleans for arms 
for that colony, and when on his way up the Ohio to Fort Pitt, in pirogues, 
when rounding the bar opposite Fulton, he saw Indians coming out of the 
Little Miami on rafts and in canoes and crossing the Ohio, landing where 
Dayton now is. 

Colonel Rogers had seventy-nine men (soldiers) with him, and, of course, 
well armed. He determined to capture the Indians he had seen crossing 
the ( )hio and going into the dense forests, not dreaming that there was any 
considerable number of them. He landed his boats and marched his men 
into the forests, where, to his astonishment, he was attacked by five hun- 
dred savages, and he and seventy of his men killed. Major Benham, who 
lived for many years after the settlement of Cincinnati over on the Taylor 
Bottoms, was one of the party; he was wounded, and concealed himself by 
crawling under a large fallen tree, where he laid suffering from his wounds 
without food or water for two days before he made any effort to procure 
food. He was wounded through the hips and could not walk, and although 
almost perishing for water, was unable to reach the beautiful river so close 
and in sight of where he laid. After suffering thus for two days he saw a 
'coon coming along the tree under which he had hidden, and fired at and 
killed it. The crack of his rifle had scarcely resounded through the woods 
before some one called out to him. Loading his gun immediately — a pre- 
caution always taken by the pioneers of that day — he drew back to his 
hiding place. Again a voice was heard saying, " Where and who are you ? 
Be you white man or Indian ? Tell me where you are. I am a wounded, 
starving, helpless white soldier." Major Benham then called to him to come 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



31 



to him, and when they met found it was one of his comrades, who had been 
wounded in both arms. He could walk, but could not use his hands. Both 
were suffering for water and food. Benham put the rim of his coon-skin 
cap in his comrade's mouth, who went down to the river, and kneeling 
down filled it with water, and carried it to him. 

Benham would shoot game, the other would kick it to him, when he 
would dress and cook it. Thus they lived for six weeks before their wounds 
were sufficiently healed to enable them to move down to the mouth of the 
Licking, where they lived in a bark shanty they had constructed, and were 
finally taken on board a passing emigrant boat and carried to the Falls — 
Louisville. 

This was the most disastrous battle to the whites ever fought with the 
savages, seventy out of seventy-nine men killed, and two badly wounded. 

Another was when General Wm. Lytle, father of the late General Win. 
Lytle, emigrated with his father from Pennsylvania in 1780. They descended 
the Ohio with doubtless the largest fleet of boats and greatest number of 
emigrants that ever left the upper country at one time. They had sixty- 
three boats and one thousand fighting men in the party, beside the women 
and children. 

At Limestone (Maysville, Ky.), three boats with families landed and 
remained. On the morning of April nth, at ten o'clock the next day, two 
boats which were ahead as pilots and scouts, signaled that an encampment 
of Indians had been found on the northern bank, or Indian side, opposite 
the mouth of the Licking, where Broadway intersects Front Street now. 
The bank at that time was a high bluff, rendering them clearly visible from 
their boats. Three boats, at a concerted signal, landed half a mile above, 
and half the fighting men were in readiness to spring ashore, form and march 
down where the Indians were. The number of the savages scarcely exceeded 
one hundred and fifty, and seeing such a greatly superior force marching 
down upon them they fled in great haste and disorder, leaving most of their 
movables behind them. They followed the bank to Mill Creek, then up the 
bottom of that creek, where they were pursued beyond the present site of 
Cumminsville. Many of them being mounted they fled faster than their 
pursuers could follow. The whites returned to the boats and floated without 
interference to Bear Grass Creek, Louisville. 

Just previous to the settlement of Cincinnati in 1788, five hunters from 



32 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

the station near Georgetown, Kentucky, landed at the mouth of Deer Creek 
in two canoes, and after hiding them in the willows and weeds that grew 
thick and rank upon this stream, they went up the creek along the west 
bank. They halted about a hundred and fifty yards from the mouth under 
the shade of an elm to partake of their rude repast. It was in the month of 
September, clear and warm, and near sunset. Having finished their humble 
meal, at the suggestion of one of the parties named Hall, as a matter of 
safety and comfort, they concluded to go to the northern hills and encamp 
until morning. They started along a deer path through dense iron weeds, 
through which they walked single file, entering one after another upon 
a grassy weedless knob. The deer path crossed the knob and entered the 
weedy thicket again. The hunters did not pause; as the last man was about 
to enter the deer path on the north of the knob he fell simultaneously with 
the sharp crack of a rifle discharged from among the weeds on the western 
slope. 

The whole party dashed into the thicket of weeds on either side and 
squatted with their rifles cocked ready for an emergency, where they waited 
quietly until nightfall. Everything around being still and no further 
demonstration being made, one after another returned out into the path and 
started towards the opening. 

Hall, who was a bold fellow and a relation of Baxter who had been shot, 
crawled to where he laid on his hands and knees and found him dead, a 
bullet having entered his skull, forward of the left temple. 

Baxter laid some ten feet from the thicket's entrance, and Hall, after 
getting out of the thicket, rolled slowly to the side of the dead man, lest he 
should be observed by the skulking savage if in an upright position. As 
nothing could be heard indicating the presence of the enemy the party 
cautiously approached the dead man, and after consulting in whispers con- 
cluded to bury him. 

Baxter was carried to the bank of the river where they dug his grave 
with their tomahawks beneath a beech tree, a few feet from the bluff. I laving 
performed the last sad duties to the dead they prepared to leave when they 
were startled by a sound upon the water. " A canoe" whispered Hall. 1 te 
crawled to the spot where they had hidden their canoes, and one was gone. 
Quick to decide, three of the hunters armed and determined upon revenge, 
were in less than five minutes darting through the water in their canoe in the 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 33 

direction of the sound. About one hundred yards below the mouth of the 
Licking, on the Kentucky side, they came within rifle shot of the canoe, and 
fired at the person who was paddling it, scarcely visible in the dim starlight. 
A sharp exclamation of agony evidenced the certainty of the shot, and 
paddling up to it they found but a single old Indian writhing in the death 
struggle, the blood gushing from his shorn scalp. In the bottom of the 
canoe they found a rifle, a pouch of parched corn and a gourd about half 
filled with whisky. He was scalped and his body thrown into the river. 
The party returned to the mouth of the creek, camped near Baxter's grave, 
and in the morning pursued their journey home. 

Forty years afterwards some boys digging for worms at the mouth of Deer 
Creek, just below the bridge, discovered a skeleton with a bullet hole in the 
skull and the ball inside; it was supposed to be that of Baxter. 

This calls to mind a story told us by the late Joseph Coppin. He said 
that soon after his arrival in Cincinnati he with some other boys were looking 
at some men digging a drain in front of the old red tavern, which stood on 
Water Street below Main, near where the suspension bridge lies on this side. 
The old tavern had a porch along the entire front, and on it sat a very old 
man, the oldest looking man he had ever seen; his hair was as white as snow, 
literally. 

He got up and leaned on the banister a few minutes, looking at the men 
digging in front, and then tottered to where the men were at work. Leaning 
upon his cane, he asked what they were digging for ? They told him they 
were making a drain. "Well," said he, after looking over at Licking and 
all around him, as if getting the points of the compass, ' ' within six feet of 
where you are digging there is a man buried," and pointing with his cane 
said, "dig right there and you will find it; if it is not rotten, you will 
find a bullet hole over the right eye." Rather to gratify the old man, 
than from any confidence in what he said, they dug where he had in- 
dicated, and sure enough, about three feet under ground they found the 
skeleton, and the bullet hole over the right eye, in the skull ; and the ball 
rattled in the skull when they pulled it up. Astonished, he was asked how 
he knew the skeleton was there. He replied : "In 1764 I was a British 
soldier in General Boquet's army when he made his expedition on the 
Muskingum, and after we returned to Fort Pitt, a squad was sent down the 
Ohio to see if the French had established any trading posts north of 



34 



H1ST0K Y OF CINCINNA Tl. 



the Falls. We landed right here one evening, and pitched our tent 
there," pointing to a certain spot with his cane. "We built our fire 
here to cook our supper, and while sitting around the fire, eating, a shot 
was fired from the direction of the corner of Main and Front Streets, 
and one of our men was killed. As it was dark we were afraid to move far 
away to bury him ; we put out our fire, and dug his grave and buried him 
where you found his skeleton." This was a burial "away back," and is 
probably the first white man buried within the limits of our city ; Baxter, at 
Deer Creek, was the second, and Major McGrath, of Clark's expedition, in 
1782, the third, who died while coming over Key's Hill, at the head of 
Main Street, and was buried near the stockade fort, at the foot of Sycamore 
Street, and logs put on his grave to prevent the Indians from mutilating his 
body. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



35 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Pioneers Examine the Site of the Proposed Town — Dr. Drake's 
Account of Mounds — Judge Burnett's Description of Them. 

II AVING provided a shelter by the erection of the small log cabin for 
the use of Colonel Ludlow and his assistant surveyors, and occupying 
their boats and a temporary camp built on the beach, the pioneers began an 
examination and survey of the site of the proposed town of Losantiville, 
destined to become the great city of Cincinnati of the present day. They 
found it to be on a high and bluff bank on the northwest side of the Ohio 
River, in the extreme northern part of an extensive and beautiful valley, 
twelve miles in circumference, surrounded by picturesque hills from three 
to four hundred feet above low water mark, and bisected by the Ohio River, 
leaving nearly an equal portion of this valley on either side in Kentucky and 
the Northwest Territory. 

The place in which the town was to be laid out consisted of two plains, 
as at present. The first, or that from the river bank back to Third Street, 
an average distance of eight hundred feet, then rising abruptly about fifty 
feet, as high as the present Fourth Street; the second table (comparatively 
level) extended back nearly a mile to "Hamilton Road" (now McMicken 
Avenue), to the foot of the hill, thence up the hill to Liberty Street, the 
eastern part draining into Deer Creek, the western into Mill Creek, the 
middle or central directly into the Ohio River through numerous ravines. 
The first level or plain was covered with a dense forest of beech, walnut and 
sycamore trees, with a thick undergrowth of spice wood. A large swamp 
occupied the land from Ludlow to Main Street, where the first settlers 
amused themselves by shooting snipe and wild duck. The second or upper 
plain was also thickly wooded with large trees of sugar, oak, walnut, hickory 
and in some places poplar trees, but was comparatively clear of underbrush. 
On different parts of the upper tableland ancient earth-works were discovered 
constructed by that mysterious and unknown race, designated as "Mound 
Builders," who have left throughout the west, and especially in Ohio, so 
many evidences of their work of defense, and higher state of civilization than 



36 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

existed among the Indians. Here were different remains of their works, 
consisting of embankments or walls, mounds and excavations of various 
forms and dimensions composed entirely of earth ; no stone appeared to have 
been used in their construction, and if wood had formed any part of the 
materials the lapse of time, perhaps many centuries, had obliterated all traces 
of it. 

Dr. Daniel Drake in his "Picture of Cincinnati," published in 1815, 
thus describes them and their contents found by excavation: " Among these 
there is not a single edifice nor any ruins which prove the existence in former 
ages of a building composed of imperishable materials. No fragments of a 
column, no bricks, nor a single hewn stone large enough to have been 
incorporated into a wall has been discovered. 

"The fabrics of wood must have long since mouldered away; and the 
only relics which remain to inflame the curiosity and excite speculation, are 
composed of earth, with which rude and undressed masses of stone have 
been sometimes combined. These vestiges consist of mounds, excavations, 
and embankments, or walls of various forms and dimensions. Cincinnati 
affords specimens of each. They are extensive, , and complicated, but not 
< onspicuous, and have, therefore, attracted less attention than relics at some 
other places. The principal wall or embankment encloses an entire block 
of lots and some fractions. It is a very broad ellipses; one diameter 
extending 800 feet east from Fifth Street ; but this figure is not mathemat- 
ically exact. On the east side it had an opening nearly ninety feet in 
width. 

" It is composed of loam, and exhibits, upon being excavated, quite a 
homogeneous appearance. Its height is scarcely three feet, upon a base of 
more than thirty. There is no ditch on either side. Within the wall the 
surface of the ground is somewhat uneven or waving; but nothing is found 
that indicates manual labor. On each side of the gateway or opening, 
exterior and contiguous to the wall, there is a broad elevation or parapet of 
an undeterminate figure. From one of these may be traced a bank not 
more than twelve inches in h«ight, on a foundation nine times as great. It 
extends southerly about one hundred and fifty feet, till it reaches within one 
or two rods of the border of the upper plain or hill, where it turns to the 
east, and terminates in a mound at the junction of Main and Third Streets, 
distant nearly five hundred feet from the parapet of the opposite side; no 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



37 



walls of this kind can be traced; but immediately north of it, and at a short 
distance, are two other shapeless and insulated elevations more than six feet 
in height, which it seems probable could not have been formed on an alluvial 
plain but by the hands of man. Upwards of four hundred yards east of 
this, between Broadway and Sycamore Streets, there is another bank of 
nearly the same dimensions with the one last described. It can be traced 
from Sixth to the vicinity of Third street; and is evidently the segment 
of a very large circle, the center of which would lie within or immedi- 
ately south of that already described. From near the southern end of 
this segment to the river, a low embankment, it is said, could formerly be 
traced, and was found to correspond in height, direction, and extent, in the 
western part of the town, but neither of these are now (1815) visible. In 
Fifth Street, east of all that have been described, there is a circular bank 
enclosing a space sixty feet in diameter. It was formed by throwing up 
earth from the inside. It is not more than a foot in height, but twelve or 
fifteen in horizontal extent. In the northern part of town, between Vine 
and Elm Streets, at the distance of 400 yards from the ellipses first 
described, there are a couple of convex earthen banks, 760 feet long, and 
less than two feet high connected at each end. They are exactly parallel, 
and forty-six feet asunder, measuring from their centers for two-thirds of 
their distance, after which they converge to forty. In the southern of 
these banks, about the point where their inclination to each other com- 
mences, there was an opening thirty feet wide. The direction of these 
elevations, as ascertained by the compass, does not vary two degrees from a 
true east and west line. 

"The site of our town exhibits many other inequalities of surface, which 
are no doubt artificial, but they are too much reduced, and their configura- 
tion is too obscure to admit of their being described. 

" It is worthy of notice that the plains on the opposite side of the river 
have not a single vestige of this kind. Of excavations, we have but one. 
It is situated more than half a mile north of the figure first described, 
and is not perceptibly connected with any other works. Its depth is 
about twelve feet; its diameter, measuring from the top of the circular 
bank formed by throwing out the earth, is nearly fifty. Popular specula- 
tion could not fail to make a half filled well, but no examination has yet 
been undertaken. 



38 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

"The mounds or pyramids found on this plain were four in number. The 
largest stands directly west of the central enclosure so often referred to at 
the distance of five hundred yards. Its present height is twenty-five feet, 
and about eight feet were cut off by General Wayne in 1794 to prepare it 
for the reception of a sentinel. It is a regular ellipse, whose diameters are 
to each other nearly as two to one. The longer runs seventeen degrees east 
of north. Its circumference at the base is four hundred and forty feet. The 
earth for thirty or forty yards around it is perceptibly lower than the other 
parts of the plain, and the stratum of loam is thinner, from which it appears 
to have been formed by scooping up the surface, which opinion is confirmed 
by its internal structure. It has been penetrated nearly to the center, and 
found to consist of loam gradually passing into soil with rotten wood. The 
fruits of this examination were only a few scattering and decayed human 
bones, a branch of a^ deer's horn and a piece of earthernware containing 
mussel shell. 

" At the distance of five hundred feet from this pyramid, in the direction 
of north eight degrees east, there is another about nine feet high of a circular 
figure and nearly flat on the top. This has been penetrated to the center of 
its base without affording anything but fragments of human skeletons and a 
handful of copper beads which had been strung on a cord of lint. 

" Northeast of the last, at the distance of a few hundred yards, is another 
of the same figure, but not more than three feet in height, which, upon 
being partially opened, has been found to contain a quantity of unfinished 
spear and arrow heads of flint." 

"The mound at the intersection of Third and Main Streets has attracted 
most attention, and is the only one that had any connection with the lines 
which have been described. It was about eight feet high, one hundred and 
twenty long, and sixty broad, of an oval figure with its diameter lying nearly 
in the direction of the cardinal points. It has been almost obliterated by the 
graduation of Main Street, and its construction is therefore well-known. 
Whatever it contained was deposited at a small distance beneath the stratum 
of loam which is common to the town. 

' ' The first artificial layer was of gravel, considerably raised in the middle ; 
the next, composed of large pebbles, was convex and of an uniform thick- 
ness; the last consisted of loam and soil. These strata were entire and 
must have been formed after the deposits in the tumulus were completed. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



- 39 



Of the articles taken from thence many have been lost; hut the following 
catalogue embraces the most curious : 

" i. Pieces of jasper, rock crystal, granite and some other stones — cylin- 
drical at the extremities and swelled in the middle with an annular groove 
near one end. 

"2. A circular piece of cannel coal with a large opening in the center, as 
if for an axis, and a deep groove in the circumference suitable for a band. 
It has a number of small perforations, disposed in four equidistant lines, 
which run from the circumference towards the center. 

"3. A smaller article of the same shape, with eight lines of perforations, 
but composed of argillaceous earth, well polished. 

"4. A bone, ornamented with several carved lines, supposed to be 
hieroglyphical. 

"5. A sculptured representation of the head and beak of a rapacious bird, 
perhaps an eagle 

"6. A mass of lead ore (galena), lumps of which have been found in some 
other tumuli. 

"7. A quantity of isinglass (mica membranacea), plates of which have 
been discovered in and about other mounds. 

"8. A small ovate piece of sheet copper, with two perforations. 

"9. A larger oblong piece of the same metal, with longitudinal grooves 
and ridges. 

"These articles are described in the fourth and fifth volumes of the 
'American Philosophical Transactions,' by Governor Sargent and Judge 
Turner, and were supposed by Professor Barton to have been designed in 
part for ornament and in part for superstitious ceremonies. In addition to 
these I have since discovered in the same mound : 

"10. A number of beads or sections of small hollow cylinders, apparently 
of bone or shell. 

"n. The teeth of a carnivorous animal, probably those of the bear. 

"12. Several large marine shells, belonging perhaps to the genus buc- 
cinum, cut in such a manner as to serve for domestic utensils, and nearly 
converted into the state of chalk. 

" 14. Several copper articles, each consisting of two sets of circular con- 
cavo-convex plates, the interior one of each set connected with the other by 



4Q 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



a hollow axis, around which had been wound a quantity of lint, the whole 
encompassed with the bones of a man's hand. 

"Several other articles resembling this have been dug up in other parts of 
the town. They all appear to consist of pure copper covered with the 
green carbonate of that metal. 

"After removing this incrustation of rust from two pieces, their specific 
gravities were found to be 7.545 and 7.857. Their hardness is about that 
of sheet copper of commerce. They are not engraven or embellished with 
characters of any kind. 

"15. Human bones. These were of different sizes ; sometimes inclosed in 
rude coffins of stone, but oftener lying blended with the earth, generally 
surrounded by a portion of ashes and charcoal. 

"The quantity of these bones, although much greater than that taken from 
the other mounds of the town, was smaller in proportion to what was 
expected, the whole tumulus not having contained perhaps more than 
twenty or thirty skeletons." 

The description of these earthworks, given by Judge Jacob Burnet in 
his letters to the Historical Society of Ohio, page 35, differs in some par 
ticulars from thnt of Dr. Drake, but is substantially the same. He 
says : 

"When I first came here the town had advanced but very little from a 
state of nature (1796). The surface of the site on which it stands waU un- 
disturbed, except where some rough houses and humble cabins had been 
erected to shelter its inhabitants. 

"The works referred to were in a perfect state of preservation, though 
depressed in height by the natural causes which had operated on them for 
ages. Within the limits of the town as originally laid out there were two 
large circles, one near the eastern boundary and the other in a western 
direction, near the center of the plat. The former, though sufficiently 
distinct to be traced, was not as elevated or as perfect as the other. 

"It was about the same diameter, and was uniform in its curvity. The 
circle near the center passed through the block which I owned, south of 
Fourth, and between Vine and Race Streets. It was an exact circle, about 
six hundred feet in diameter. The earth which composed it had been 
gradually washed down till its base had spread about twenty-five feet and its 
apex was reduced to about eight or ten feet above the plane of its base. On 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



41 



the north side, near Fifth Street, there was an aperture ten or twelve feet 
wide, and there might have been another which has escaped my memory. 

"The arc within my enclosure, subtended by a chord of about three 
hundred feet, was preserved with care while it was in my possession. 

"On that part of it I am confident there was no break or opening. 
These works were entirely on the upper level of the town plat, and did not 
approach the break of the hill nearer than four hundred feet. About one 
hundred and fifty rods west of the circle last spoken of stood a beautiful mound 
thirty-five or forty feet high, at Mound and Fifth Streets, constructed with 
great exactness, and standing on a base unusually small compared with its 
height. When the army, under the command of General Wayne, was 
encamped at this place in 1792-3, he had a sentry box on its top, which 
commanded an entire view of the plain. In the neighborhood of this 
structure two or three smaller ones were standing, which were found to con- 
tain human bones, as is the fact with regard to most of them. Besides these 
there was another of a medium size compared with the others, standing on 
the brow of the hill, about midway between the circles and in advance of 
them, in the direction of the river, about three or four hundred feet. 

" By digging down and grading Main Street this structure was entirely 
removed many years ago. While that process was going on many articles 
which it contained were found; some, if not all of which, were probably 
deposited there after the country had been visited by Europeans. Among 
them were marine shells, pieces of hard earthen ware, a small ivory image 
finely wrought of the Virgin Mary, holding an infant in her arms, which had 
been much mutilated ; also a small metallic instrument, complex in its con- 
struction, much corroded and decayed, and supposed by some to have been 
intended to ascertain the weight of small substances. The skeleton of a 
man was also found under its apex, a few feet below the surface, contained in 
what might be called a coffin, composed of flat stones so placed on all sides as 
to protect the body from the pressure of the earth. Other discoveries were 
made, which my memory does not retain with sufficient accuracy to enable 
me to describe them." 



4 2 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Survey Made to Distribute Donation Lots — Conditions on Which 
Distributed — Agreement Between Parties — Drawing Made Janu- 
ary 7, 1789 — Names of Persons Who Drew Lots. 

(~\& the 7th day of January, 1789, the survey had been sufficiently 
accomplished by Colonel Ludlow, to enable the proprietors to dis- 
tribute" the thirty in and out lots to the first thirty settlers, when the 
following agreement was entered into between them and the proprietors, as 
recorded by Colonel Israel Ludlow, and as also found in the papers of 
Colonel Robert Patterson after his death : 

CONDITIONS ON WHICH THE DONATION LOTS IN THE TOWN OF LOSANTIVILLE 
ARE HELD AND SETTLED. 

The first thirty town and out-lots to so many of the most early adven- 
turers shall be given by the proprietors, Messrs. Denman, Patterson, and 
Ludlow, who for their part do agree to make a deed free, and clear of 
all charges and incumbrances, excepting that of surveying and* deed- 
ing the same, so soon as a deed is procured from Congress by Judge 
Symmes. 

The lot-holders, for their part, do agree to become actual settlers on the 
premises, plant and attend two crops successively, and not less than one 
acre shall be cultivated for each crop, and that within the term of two 
years each person receiving a donation lot or lots, shall build a house 
equal to twenty feet square, one story and a half high, with brick, stone, or 
clay chimney, which shall stand in front of their respective in-lots, and shall 
be put in tenantable repair within the term of two years from the date 
hereof. The above requisitions shall be minutely complied with under 
penalty of forfeiture, unless Indian depredations render it impracticable. 

Done this seventh day of January, one thousand, seven hundred and 
eighty-nine. Israel Ludlow. 

It will be observed that the above agreement is identical with the one 
issued at Limestone in December, with the exception, that instead of 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



43 



Losantiburg, the town is called Losantiville, and instead of requiring 
that the houses shall be equal to twenty-five feet square, the last stipu- 
lates that each house shall be twenty feet square, and is signed by Israel 

i 
Ludlow. 

These stipulations having been agreed to by both parties, the drawing 
proceeded on the 7th day of January, 1789, the same date on which the 
agreement was made, and resulted as follows, as is shown by the following 
certificates, found among the papers of Colonel Robert Patterson, after his 
death, and also in the records of Colonel Ludlow. 

The following names, with the numbers of lots thereunto annexed, are, 
according to the lottery, drawn for the first thirty settlers in the town of 
Losantiville, January 7, 1789, under the direction of Messrs. Patterson and 
Ludlow : 



Number of Lots. In-lots. Out-lots. 

Joel Williams 79 3 

John Porter 77 2 

David McClure 26 6 

Samuel Mooney 33 14 

Sylvester White 2 15 

Joseph Thornton 3 28 

James Carpenter., 32 1 

Matthew Campbell 28 8 

Noah Badgely 31 22 

Luther Kitchell 58 13 

James McConnell 30 5 

Jesse Stewart 54 30 

Benjamin Drement 53 25 

Isaac Vanmeter 8 18 

Daniel Shoemaker 78 27 



Number of Lots. In-lots. Out-lots. 

EphraimKibby 59 4 

John Vance 4 24 

Jesse Fulton .... 6 23 

Henry Bechtel.... 56 16 

Isaac Freeman 51 20 

Samuel Blackburn 1 29 

Scott Traverse 52 9 

Elijah Martin 7 26 

Archibald Stewart 57 12 

James Campbell 34 21 

Davison 27 19 

James Dumont 5 11 

Jonas Menser 29 10 

Thomas Gizzel 9 17 

Harry Lindsay 76 7 



The following named persons who drew lots at the above distribution 
transferred them as follows : Joseph Thornton, Lots 3 and 28 to Robert 
Caldwell. Matthew Campbell, Lots 28 and 8 to Nathaniel Rolstein. 
Benjamin Dumont, Lots 53 and 25 to Enoch McHendry. Davison, who 
drew Lots 27 and 19, was erased from the records. 

The town, or in-lots, distributed by the above drawing were located 
between Front and Second Streets, and between Main and Broadway, from 
Second and Third Streets, between Sycamore and Broadway, as shown in 
the accompanying map. 



44 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



In the following May these further donations were made : 

LOTS GIVEN BY THE PROPRIETORS ON THE SAME CONDITIONS AS THE FIRST THIRTY 

DONATION LOTS. 



No. 

Robert Caldwell 84 

John Cutter 92 

Seth Cutter 89 

James Millan 94 

Levi Woodward 34 

Thaddeus Bruen 32 

Nathaniel Rolstein 30 

Rev. James Kemper 65 

Peyten Cook & Winters 61 

William Cammel 85 

Abraham Garrison 86 

Francis Kennedy 151 

Luther Kitchel 80 

John Cummings 106 

Robert Bcnham 17 

Joshua Findlar 37 

Henry Bechtel, Jr 57 

Robert Uenham 63 

Joseph Kelly 113 

Isaac Bates 60 

James Campbell 154 

Dr. John Hole 227 

Jabish Philips 91 

Captain Furguson 13 

Lieutenant Ford.... 10 



No. 

Elijah Martin 82 

David Logan 263 

Samuel Kennedy 112 

Malign Baker 138 

Cobus Linsicourt 114 

Wm. McMillan 27 

Richard Bcnham 90 

Wm. McMillan 53 

Henry Reed 88 

George Adams 129 

Captain Pratt 9 

Captain Ford 11 

Levi Woodward 34 

Robt. Benham 62 

John Covert 85 

Enoch McIIendry 67 

James Dument 10S 

John Terry, Sr 116 

Joel Williams 126 

Joseph McHendry 79 

James Cunningham 12S 

Samuel Kitchel 205 

Colonel Robert Patterson 127 

Fraction JT.. 4 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 



45 



CHAPTER X. 

Ludlow Surveys and Lays off Lois From Broadway to Western Row, 
and From River to Northern Row (Seventh Street) — Pioneers 
Clear Land — Letter of Mrs. Rebecca Reeder — Sale of Lots in 
1789 and 1790. 

AT OTWITHSTANDING the earth was covered with snow and the 
weather became intensely cold, Colonel Ludlow and his assistants 
proceeded to complete the survey and platting of the town as soon as the 
distribution of the first thirty lots had been made, and finished it during the 
winter as far north as Northern Row (Seventh Street), and from Eastern 
Row (Broadway) to Western Row (Central Avenue), marking the course 
of the streets by blazing the trees. Whilst the surveyors were thus engaged, 
others of the pioneers were chopping down the beech, sugar and other 
larger trees on the lower level from Walnut Street to Broadway. 

The supply of provisions which they had brought with them was soon 
exhausted, and none were to be obtained except from the settlements in 
Kentucky, from sixty to a hundred miles distant up the Licking, or from 
Lexington. To procure them from these stations or settlements was exceed 
ingly difficult, because the Licking River was frozen over or full of ice, 
preventing navigation with canoes, and to bring a sufficient supply from 
either place by land required pack horses, which were very scarce. Added 
to these difficulties everything was very high in price, and the purses of the 
first settlers were by no means plethoric with money. Subsistence must 
therefore be sought by some other means. Fortunately they were all familiar 
with the use of the rifle, and wild game, such as deer, bears and wild turkeys, 
was abundant in the forests around them, and buffalo and elk across the river 
in Kentucky. 

Whilst the surveyors and woodchoppers were busy surveying and felling 
the forests, the hunters, with their rifles, procured provisions from the 
forests, and this furnished almost exclusively their subsistence during the 
winter and succeeding summer. 



46 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

The wild game nut only furnished food for these resolute men, but also 
clothing. 

Rude was the garb and strong the frame 

Of him who plied his ceaseless toil. 
To form that garb the wild wood game 

Contributed their spoil. 
The soul that warmed that frame disdained 

The tinsel, gaud and glare that reigned 
Where men their crowds collect ; 

The simple fur, untrimmed, unstained, 
This forest tamer decked. — Street. 

The situation is graphically described in a letter written to the Pioneer 
Association of Hamilton County in 1858 and still among the papers of that 
association, by Mrs. Rebecca Reeder, then residing at Pleasant Ridge. 

Mrs. Reeder was the daughter of Francis Kennedy, who landed at Cin- 
cinnati on the 8th day of February, 1789, forty-one days after the landing of 
the first pioneers. She writes: 

"My father, mother and seven children landed at Cincinnati on the 8th 
of February, 1789. The first persons we saw after landing were Mr. M< 
Millan and Mr. Israel Ludlow, one of the proprietors of the place. There 
were three little cabins here when we landed, where the surveyors and chain 
carriers lived. They had no floors in these cabins. There were three other 
women here beside my mother. Their names were Miss Dement, Mrs. 
Constance Zenes (afterward married to Mr. McMillan), Mrs. Pesthal, a 
German woman, and my mother, Mrs. Rebecca Kennedy, which made four 
women at that time. There were but two families that had small children; 
they were the German family and my father's family. 

"Mr. Ludlow came down to our boat and invited my father and mother 
up to stay in their cabin until we could get one built, but my mother thought 
they could remain more comfortably with their small children in their boat. 
So we lived in our boat until the ice began to run, and then we were forced 
to contrive some other way to live. What few men there were here got 
together and knocked our boats up and built us a camp. We lived in our 
camp six weeks. Then my father built us a large cabin, which was the firs! 
one large enough for a family to live in. We took the boards of our camp 
and made floors in our house. 

" Father intended to have built our house on the corner of Walnut and 
Water Streets, but not knowing exactly where the streets were, he built our 
house right in the middle of Water Street. The streets were laid out, but 
the woods were so very thick, and the streets were not opened, so it was 
impossible to tell where the streets would be. 

"At the time we landed the army was stationed at North Bend. The 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



47 



army was in a suffering condition from the want of bread. They heard 
that we landed with a considerable quantity of flour and corn meal. There 
were several soldiers sent up to my father to get a few barrels of flour for 
the benefit of the army. Father told them he did not bring flour here to 
sell, but to save his children's lives here in the forest. They had their guns 
with them, and said they were sent to take it by force, if he would not give 
it up. My father took down his gun, and told them he would stand in 
defense of his flour. They then went back to North Bend, and Judge 
Symmes, who lived near the fort, then wrote my father a letter, and told 
him to roll the soldiers out as many barrels of flour as they required, and he 
would see it replaced. My father then gave them as much as they wanted, 
and it was replaced in due time. 

"The first summer after we came here, which was in 1789, the people 
suffered very much from want of bread, and as for meat, they had none at 
all only as they killed it in the woods. That was all they had to eat." 

When spring opened more cabins were built, principally between 
Walnut Street and Broadway, and the population had increased by the 1st 
of May to eleven families, besides twenty-four unmarried men, all dwelling 
in twenty log cabins, and nearly all of the large trees had been cut down 
between Walnut Street and Broadway, south of Second Street, although the 
logs, or many of them, remained on the ground for several years afterward, 
as is well remembered by some of the older citizens still living. 

Colonel Ludlow had by this time (May, 1789) about completed the sur- 
vey. Lots were offered for sale, and disposed of during the years 1789 and 
1790 as follows, to the persons named, and for the prices set opposite each 
name ; as is shown by the record of Colonel Ludlow, published by Robert 
Clark, Esq , in 1870, to whom we are under obligations for a copy. Price 
in pounds, shillings, and pence. 

LOTS SOLD BY THE PROPRIETORS OF THE TOWN OF LOSANTIVILLE. 

Price. Price. 

No. s. P. No. s. P. 

Doctor Hole 93 25 Nehemiah Hunt 40 30 

Jno. Ludlow 118 45 Nehemiah Hunt 39 30 

Jonas Seaman 105 40 Jonathan Ross. 62 30 

Zachariah Hole 94 37 6 Captain Strong 12 30 

Seth Cutter 64 30 Captain Strong 38 30 

Levi Woodward 33 25 Captain Pratt 9 30 

Robert Caldwell 84 30 Lieutenant Ford 10 30 

Judge Turner 160 30 Jacob Van Doran 201 50 

Judge Turner 185 37 6 Samuel Blackburn 177 50 

William Rusk 161 30 Samuel Whiteside 187 45 



48 



II J STORY OF CINCINNATI. 



Price. 

No. s. p. 

James Campbell 153 70 

Judge Turner 188 30 

John Ross 186 30 

Robert Terry 162 37 6 

John Terry 95 25 

Uriah Ilardesty 68 30 

Win. Gowen 70 30 

Thomas Brown 96 30 

Wm. Gowen 69 30 

James Millan 75 30 

Jabish Phillips 202 40 

David Logan 226 50 

John Griffen 171 30 

John Griffen 170 30 

Samuel Blackburn 177 50 

Joseph Kelly 113 30 

D.C.Cooper 251 50 

John Ludlow 252 50 

Margaret Martin. 276 50 

Samuel Kitchell 176 60 

Israel Hunt... 66 30 

Jabish Phillips 47 40 

James Millan 48 30 

James Millan 49 30 

James Millan 50 30 

William Kelly 72 30 

William Kelly 73 30 

EnosPorter 74 30 

William Kelley 75 30 

George Niece 44 30 

George Niece 45 30 

George Niece 46 3d 

Jonathan Fitss 58 30 

Tapping, Esq 131 30 

James Millen 81 35 

Russel Farnum 147 30 

David Welch 146 30 

David Welch 172 30 

lirunton & Doharty 122 30 

Brunton & Doharty 123 30 

Brunton & Doharty 124 45 

Brunton & Doharty 125 45 

D. C. Orcutt 145 30 

John Wiant 169 60 

Reuben Rood 82 25 

Joel Ilamblin 155 40 

DariusOrcut 35 37 6 



Price. 

No. s. p. 

William Ross 163 30 

W. McMillan, Esq 135 30 

James Goald 203 35 

James Goald 204 40 

John McGloughlen 351 50 

Henry McGloughlen 352 50 

Luke Mellen 148 30 

Jacob Warwick 228 40 

John Murfey 277 40 

Jacob Fowler 242 30 

Presley Peck 253 40 

Presley Peck 254 40 

Presley Peck 112 30 

Thaddeus Bruen 31 35 

Malign Baker 138 30 

Doctor John Hole 216 30 

John Lore 87 30 

Enos Terry 136 30 

James Lyon 137 30 

John Tharp 217 80 

Jerum Holt 218 30 

James Wallace 301 50 

Benj. Vanclcep 219 30 

John Cummings 236 30 

John Van Eton 260 45 

Stephen Barnes 235 30 

Nathaniel Rolstein 213 * 30 

Nathaniel Rolstein 212 30 

Abraham Garrison s: ... 155 40 

Abraham Garrison 156 35 

Abraham Garrison 157 35 

Mr. Nielson 210 30 

Mr. Nielson 211 30 

Mr. Nielson 214 30 

Mr. Neilson 215 30 

Israel Hunt 158 30 

Israel Hunt 159 15 

Israel Hunt 239 37 6 

George Greves 107 30 

Widow Terry 240 60 

John Tharp 241 60 

Moses Miller 132 60 

Moses Miller 133 50 

John Tharp 134 22 6 

Daniel Bates 194 30 

Daniel Bates 195 30 

Samuel Pierson 22 30 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



49 



No. 

Darius Orcut 3G 

Ephraim Coleman 180 

— Truman 195 

— Truman 196 

Mr. Welch 193 

Edward Holland 195 

Edward Holland ... 196 

James Campbell 179 

John Vance 168 

Wm. McMillan, Esq 143 

Hezekiah Hardesty 267 

Thomas Black 310 

Thomas Black 311 

Uriah Gates 308 

Uriah Gates 309 

Uriah Gates 333 

Uriah Gates 334 

Uriah Gates 307 

John Terry 109 

Isaac Bates ... 264 

Isaac Bates 265 

Francis Kennedy 112 

Daniel Bates 195 

Samuel Martin 41 

Samuel Martin 42 

John Coulson 261 

John Cummings 237 

John Gaston 238 

J. Turner 163 

Jacob Tapping 130 

John Cummings 263 

James Lowry 45 

Ben. Voluntine 46 

Moses Burd 170 

Moses Burd 171 

John Adams 145 

John Adams 146 

Nathan Danalds 97 

Nathan Danalds 98 

Nathan Danalds 72 

Nathan Danalds 73 

Nicholas Johnston 122 

Nicholas Johnston 123 

George Murfey 47 

James Colwell 21 

Stephen Reeder 20 

Ben. Voluntine 20 



Price. 


S. P. 


37 6 


40 


30 


30 


30 


30 


30 


35 


30 


60 


35 


35 


30 


30 


30 


30 


30 


25 


37 6 


30 


30 


30 


30 


35 


30 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


35 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


60 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


57 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 



Price. 



No. 

Matthias Pierson 23 

Enos Potter 24 

Wm. McMillan 144 

Richard Benham 243 

Richard Benham 244 

William Beazley 14 

William Beazley 15 

Levi Sayre 119 

David Joice 268 

David Joice 269 

Moses Ross 203 

Wm. McMillan 143 

James Cunningham 181 

James Cunningham 182 

James Miller 120 

Daniel Bates 37 

Captain Furguson 13 

James Dument 25 

James Dument 50 

Daniel Kitchell 205 

Daniel Kitchell 206 

Robt. Moore 207 

Robt. Moore 208 

Samuel Kitchel 209 

Judge Turner 183 

Judge Turner 184 

Robert Benham 62 

John Covert 85 

Robert Benham 126 

— Heooleson 107 

John Blanchard 16 

Casper Sheets 17 

Nehemiah Hunt 68 

Jonathan Davis 288 

Benjamin Flinn 289 

Benjamin Flinn 99 

Darius Hole 232 

William Hole 233 

Jonathan Davis 235 

Zebba Stibbins 194 

Daniel Hole 231 

Wm. McClure 13 

John McClure 14 

Daniel McClure 15 

George McClure 16 

James McClure 17 

Mary McClure 18 



30 


30 


45 


60 


60 


35 


30 


30 


35 


30 


52 6 


37 6 


37 6 


37 6 


30 


30 


37 6 


37 6 


40 


30 


40 


40 


37 6 


37 6 



30 
45 
45 



35 



40 
60 



5° 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



Price. 



Price, 



No. 

Robert Benham 3 

Joel Williams 2 

James Dumcnt 25 

William Harris 262 

Nicholas Jones 149 

Nicholas Jones 150 

William Harris 259 

William Harris 286 

William Harris 229 

Dr. Morrel 7 

Jonathan Davis 256 

Jonathan Davis 257 

Enos Terry 121 

Jonathan Davis 258 

Daniel Hole 233 

Daniel Hole 234 

William Harris 285 

Uriah Gates 284 

Henry McLaughlin 352 

Rev. James Kemper 19 

Henry Taylor, frac. range.. 7 

Samuel Freeman 228 

Captain Strong 38 

Captain Pratt 44 

William McClure 45 

George McClure 46 

Daniel McClure 50 

John McClure 51 

James Scott 52 

William Beedle 53 

Levi Woodward 22 

Seth Cutter 40 

James Blackburn 41 

Samuel Freeman 42 

Lieutentent Ford 36 

Henry Reed 43 

Colonel W. Sargent 37 

James Burns 35 

John Riddle 47 

Isaacs Bates 35 

Samuel & Matthias Pierson 15 

John Cumming 54 

Daniel Shoemaker 48 

Benjamin Van Cleave 56 

John Riddle 55 

Samuel Kitchell 49 

Lieutentent Kingsbury 57 



60 


60 


37 


6 


45 





30 


(i 


30 


37 


6 


28 





60 


35 





60 





so 





60 





60 


60 






4 00 


4 00 


25 


25 


25 


25 


25 


25 


25 


25 


35 


25 


25 


30 


25 


30 


25 


30 


25 


25 


5 25 


25 


25 


25 


25 


25 



No. 

John Riddle 01 

James Wallace 60 

Henry Taylor 04 

Mun MeKnight 65 

Luther Kitchell 58 

Doctor Hole 62 

Doctor Hole 63 

Doctor Hole 60 

Doctor Hole 67 

Robert Benham 17 

Robert Benham 18 

Robert Benham 39 

Samuel Freeman 59 

William Harris 262 

Frances Kennedy 5 

J. Phillips 10 

John Hole 12 

Niles Shaw 178 

Captain John Munn 201 

Benj. Vancleave 63 

Abraham Garrison 64 

Elijaji Davis 358 

Jonathan Davis 383 

John Cheeck 288 

Elijah Davis ... 356 

Jonathan Davis 381 

William Beedle 279 

John Dorough 376 

A soldier „.. 267 

Ziba Stibbins 196 

Ziba Stibbins 169 

Samuel Freeman 203 

Bethuel Kitchal 156 

William Beedle 277 

Elijah Davis 224 

James Pursley... 289 

David Scott 315 

Adam Funk 317 

William Hedger :;;>'.i 

Abraham Ritcheson 292 

Henry Atcheson 213 

William Diven 100 

Isaac Batea 58 

Jonathan Mercer 264 

Jonathan Mercer 265 

Richard Benham 268 

Richard Benham 269 



30 


30 


30 


30 


30 


25 


25 


30 


30 


2.". 


30 


4 00 


4 00 


6 15 



$10 

$16 
$16 

00 

60 

l 00 9 

60 

60 

00 

52 6 

37 6 

60 

75 

$ 9 

17 

17 

9 

10 

14 

4 

28 6 

$20 

20 

16 

16 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



51 



Price. Price. 

No. s. P. No. s. p. 

Garret Carvender 376 10 James Wallace 301 50 

Dr. John Hole 227 50 John Riddle 302 80 

James Millan 71 $10 Seth Cutter.... 64 80 

Richard Benham 244 16 Thomas Persons 268 60 

John Adams 146 12 John Ludlow 118 

John Adams 145 10 Jonathan Davis 380 

James Campbell 154 45 Elyajah Davis 355 



5- 



HISTQ.R Y OF CINC1NNA TI. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Judce John Cleves Symmes Determines to Begin the Settlements at 
the Mouth of the Great Miami — Addresses a Friendly Letter to 
the wyandottes and shawnees — hls reasons for selecting the 
Land at the Mouth of the Miami for His Contemplated Great 
City — Prevails Upon Captain Kearsfy to Send Troops to Escort 
and Protect Settlers — They Arrive Safely at Columbia, Where 
Their Boats are Crushed by the Ice and Nearly All of Their 
Animals are Drowned, and Most of Their Provisions Lost — Judge 
Symmes Leaves Limestone With His Family January 29, 1789, 
Accompanied by Captain Kearsey and the Rest of His Soldiers. 

T^ROM several messages received from Major Stites that the Indians were 
friendly and anxious to see him he determined to begin the settlement at 
the mouth of the Big Miami, and prevailed upon Captain Kearsey, who at that 
time commanded the United States troops at Limestone, to detail a sergeant 
and twelve men to escort some settlers who had arrived at that place on 
'their way to settle at the mouth of the Great Miami. The weather became 
intensely cold and the river was filled with heavy floating ice. The party, 
however, arrived safely at Columbia, where they landed, intending to pro- 
ceed to the old fort at the mouth of the Miami without delay;- but the ice 
soon forced their boats from the shore, staving in the sides of one of them, 
and it was with great difficulty that any of their stock was saved, many of 
their animals being drowned and most of their provisions lost entirely. This 
defeated for a time the design of settling at the Old Fort. 

He had on the 3d of January addressed the following friendly letter to 
the Wyandottes and Shawnee Indians: 

"Brothers of the Wyandottes and Shawnees, Hearken to your brother 
who is coming to live at the Great Miami. He was on the Great Miami last 
summer, when the deer was yet red and met with one of your camps; he 
did no harm to anything which you had in your camp ; he held back his 
young men from hurting you or your horses, and would not let them take 
your skins or meat, though your brothers were very hungry. All this he 
did because he was youi brother, and would live in peace with the red 
people. If the red people will live in friendship with him and his young 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 53 

men who came from the Great Salt Ocean to plant corn and build cabins 
on the land between the Great and Little Miami, then the white and red 
people shall be brothers and live together, and we will buy your furs and 
skins and sell you blankets and rifles and powder and lead and rum, and 
everything that our red brothers may want in hunting and in their towns. 

"Brothers! A treaty is holding at Muskingum. Great men from the 
thirteen fires are there to meet the chiefs and head men of all the nations of 
the red people. May the great spirit direct all their councils for peace! 
But the great men and the wise men of the red and white people cannot 
keep peace and friendship long unless we, who are their sons and warriors, 
will also bury the hatchet and live in peace. Brothers! I send you a 
string of white beads, write to you with my own hands that you may believe 
what I say. I am your brother and will be kind to you while you remain 
in peace. Farewell! John C. Symmes." 

January 3d, 1789. 

By adopting this course he followed very closely the example of William 
Penn, but he must have differed very materially from Penn on the temper- 
ance question. Penn, in his tetter to the Pennsylvania Indians, says : 
" Nor will I ever allow any of my people to sell rum to make your people 
drunk." Whereas Symmes says he will sell his red brothers rum. But 
whether his intention was to make them drunk is not stated. Be that as it 
may, it is certain he did supply them bountifully afterwards with fire water, 
with what results may appear hereafter. 

From the hasty examination Judge Symmes had made of his purchase in 
September, 1788, when John Filson was lost, he had selected the point 
between the Ohio and Great Miami Rivers as the site on which he would 
lay out and found his great city. 

His reasons, as given in his letter to Colonel Dayton for the selection of 
this location, were (1) that there would be a large number of towns located 
on the Ohio above and below the Great Miami from Pittsburg to the falls, 
and even lower down the Ohio, and the trade would be divided between 
them; and (2) that the extent of country along the Miami, spreading for 
many miles on both sides, has superior qualities in point of soil, water and 
timber to any tract of equal area to be found in the United States, as he 
believed. From this "Egypt of the Miami," as he styled it, the produce 
of the country would be poured down that stream for two hundred miles 
above its mouth, which would be collected there if the city was built at that 



54 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



point ; whereas, if built above, at North Bend, the settlers could not work 
their boats eight or nine miles up the Ohio above the mouth, and the 
produce would pass down the Ohio to towns below. 

As already stated, several expresses had been sent Judge Symmes by 
Major Stites assuring him that the Indians were friendly and were anxious 
to see him, and as the settlements at Columbia and Losantiville had been so 
far successful, he determined to begin his settlement at the mouth of the 
Great Miami; and accordingly on the 29th day of January, 1789, he left 
Limestone with his family and Captain Kearsey and the remainder of his 
troops, having previously collected what flour and salt he could, and that 
at enormous prices. 

The river at that time was higher than it had ever been known by the 
whites, and when they arrived at Columbia they found it submerged, but 
barely one cabin situated on high ground out of the water. Th« soldiers, 
in the block house they had built near where the toll-gate on the California 
pike is located, were driven to the loft, then to the roof and escaped in a 
boat they had fortunately preserved from destruction. 

Judge Symmes and his family remained but one night at Columbia, when 
they proceeded to Losantiville, which had not been entirely submerged by 
the raging waters of the Ohio. Here they remained until the 2d day of 
February, when the waters, having rapidly receded, they went on to North 
Bend, where they arrived safely, as Judge Symmes says in one of his letters, 
"at 3 of the o'clock on the afternoon of the second day of February, 17S9," 
all of Captain Kearsey's men having joined the party at Columbia. Imme- 
diately on landing they erected what was then called in the West "a camp," 
by placing two forked saplings in the ground at such distance 
as required, connecting by a ridge pole, against which boards were 
leaned. One end was closed, the other left open for an entrance where the 
fire was built. The weather was intensely cold, and Judge Symmes says in 
this camp he lived six weeks before ha could build a log house so as to get 
into it with his family and property. 

Captain Kearsey, it seems, was not pleased with the place, and insisted 
on going on to the old fort at the mouth of the Miami, and was ever after 
displeased because the party did not go there. 

From the fact that Columbia was submerged, Judge Symmes became 
fearful that the land h« had selected for the site of his magnificent city might 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



55 



be subjected to the same inundations; and in a few days after landing, 
accompanied by Captain Kearsey and Captain Henry, they went down in a 
small boat to examine it, and found by the ice on the trees that the water 
had fallen about fifteen feet, and still the site was several feet under water. 

Disappointed, he was compelled to abandon his project of founding a 
great city at that point, and returned to North Bend, resolved to lay out a 
number of house lots at that place to form a village. Forty-eight lots of 
one acre each were laid off, every alternate one of which was given away 
on condition that the recipient would immediately build thereon. These 
donation lots were soon taken, and he increased the number of lots to one 
hundred, the whole extending a mile and a half up and down the river. 
This town was called North Bend from the fact that it was the most 
northerly bend in the Ohio River from the Muskingum to the Mississippi. 
The encouragement he met with by the lots being so promptly taken at 
North Bend, v and the number of cabins being erected, and the applica- 
tions multiplying for more, induced him to lay out another town seven 
miles further up the Ohio River, at Muddy Creek, which he called South 
Bend, as it was the most southerly point of land in the Miami purchase. 
South Bend had a frontage of one mile on the Ohio. 

In the meantime he continued prospecting for a suitable site for the 
magnificent city he contemplated would yet be built on his purchase, but 
does not appear to have thought that there was a suitable location any- 
where else than in the immediate vicinity of the confluence of the Ohio and 
Great Miami Rivers. At this point he found it impracticable, but urged 
the propriety of founding the city a short distance up the Miami, where it 
would be safe from the high waters of the Ohio, and urged it for the same 
reasons given for the location at the mouth. 



5 6 HIS TOR J ' OF CINC1NNA TI. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Indian Depredations, and Murder of Citizens — Reminiscences of 

Mrs. Joseph Jones. 

A S has already been stated Major Stites found no Indians at the mouth 
of the Miami when he and his party landed, and but very few were seen 
either about Columbia, Losantiville, or North Bend for some time, and 
they appeared friendly until the next spring after the conclusion of the con- 
ference at the Muskingum, where the greater part of the tribes had been 
congregated at the solicitation of Governor St. Clair and the citizens, with 
the hope of concluding a lasting peace with them. But as they dispersed 
from Fort Harmar during the winter, the settlements lower down the 
river, at Columbia, Losantiville, and North Bend, but principally at 
Columbia, became much annoyed by straggling parties encamping in the 
vicinity, and mingling with the whites on the pretense of trading, but soon 
developed their intentions by petty thefts; clothes hung out to dry were 
stolen, axes and tools, bridles and saddles left in insecure places disap- 
peared. A short time after some Wyandottes, who had been encamped 
early in the spring of 1789 near Columbia, left their encampment, several 
horses were suddenly and mysteriously missing. Entertaining the opinion 
of an Indian then prevalent among the settlers, it was very natural that they 
should attribute the disappearance of their horses to their agency. In a 
short time afterwards another attempt was made to steal horses, but failed. 
A third attempt was more successful, and several more horses were spirited 
away by a party of Shawnees, who had been on a visit to Judge Symmes, at 
North Bend. This so enraged the settlers that a company was organized 
to pursue them, to recapture the horses, under the command of Lieu- 
tenant Bailey, then in command of the troops stationed at the block house, 
in Columbia. Among the number who volunteered was Captain James 
Flinn, a brave and powerful man. 

The party followed their trail some eighty miles, when they discovered 
that they were in the immediate vicinity of Indians. Captain Flinn went 
forward to reconnoitre, and whilst on this duty, found himself suddenly 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



57 



surrounded by a party of savages. Seeing that resistance would be vain, 
he surrendered with the best grace possible under the circumstances, 
and was quietly led to their encampment, but a short distance from 
where he had been captured. 

He was treated kindly by them, but seeing a warrior preparing some tugs 
or strings, and from other indications, he became convinced that he was to 
suffer personal violence, and, having great confidence in his agility and 
endurance, he determined to escape. Watching a favorable opportunity he 
sprang from among them, darted into the forest and was soon out of their 
reach, and continued on his course until he found his companions. They 
took some of the horses belonging to the Indians and made their way with 
all possible speed to the block house at Columbia. In a few days after their 
return some Wyandottes, who were among those previously encamped 
around Columbia, came to the block house with their squaws, bringing 
Captain Flinn's gun, protesting that they were not the Indians or tribe who 
had stolen the horses, and begging Major Stites to give them their horses 
which the men had taken from them. After considerable parleying their 
horses were given up and friendly relations were restored, and they left seem- 
ingly well pleased with their white brothers, vowing everlasting friendship. 

Judge Symmes in a letter to his associate, Colonel Dayton, of New Jersey, 
dated at North Bend, May 20, 1789, attributes the cause of the depredations 
to a spirit of retaliation for the injuries inflicted by worthless traders, who 
occasionally moored their boats at Columbia, and most villainously cheated 
the Indians in trading with them. In one instance, he says, they sold them 
whisky which froze in the casks before they reached their camp ; in another, 
these traders compelled them to pay forty buck skins and a horse worth 
seventy-five dollars for a single rifle. A gunsmith at Columbia required an 
Indian to leave two bucks before he would agree to repair his gun lock by 
putting on a chop to hold the flint, worth at most 18^ cents, and when it 
was done compelled the Indian who came after it to give him two more 
bucks before he would give it up. The Indians complained bitterly to Judge 
Symmes of this treatment, and it may have been the exciting cause of those 
depredations at Columbia, as an Indian believed what one white man does 
all are responsible for. 

But it will be seen that this was only the outcropping of that spirit which 
very soon devastated, and stained with the blood of pioneers, the hills and 



e;8 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

vales of Ohio. There still remained that jealousy which had ever existed 
against the white man occupying their hunting grounds. So far the savages 
had confined their depredations to stealing horses and other property, but 
every day they were becoming more troublesome, and on the 9th day of 
April, 1789, a party of Judge Symmes' surveyors, headed by John Mills, 
were fired upon as they were leaving camp early in the morning. Holman 
and Wells, of Kentucky, were killed and scalped; Mills and three others 
made their escape. 

In a memorandum kept by John Dunlop, a surveyor employed by Judge 
Symmes, the following record of farther Indian depredations appears: 

"May 21, 1789: Ensign Luce, with eight soldiers and some citizens, 
going up from North Bend to a place called South Bend (Riverside), was 
fired upon by a party of Indians ; the tribe they belonged to we never could 
learn. There were six soldiers killed and wounded, of which one died on 
the spot, another died of his wounds after going to the Falls of the Ohio for 
the doctor. There was a young man named John R. Mills in this boat who 
was shot through the shoulder, but by management and care of some squaws 
he recovered entirely." 

"September 20th: The Indians visiting Columbia, at the confluence of 
the Little Miami and Ohio, tomahawked one boy and took another prisoner. 
They were sons of a Mr. Seward, lately from New Jersey." 

■"On the 30th of the same month they took another prisoner from the 
same place." 

"On the 1 2th of December following, a young man, son of John 
Hilliers, of North Bend, going out in the morning to bring home the cows, 
about half a mile from the garrison, the Indians came upon him. They 
tomahawked and scalped him in a most cruel manner, took away his gun 
and hat and left him lying on his back." 

"On the 17th inst. following, two young men, one named Andrew 
Vaneman, the other James Lafferty, went on a hunting excursion across the 
river. When they encamped at night and had made a fire they were sur- 
prised by Indians and fell a sacrifice into the hands of the savages, being 
killed by the first fire. They were both shot through the back, between 
the shoulders, the bullets coming out under their right arms. The Indians 
tomahawked and scalped them in a most barbarous manner, Stripped them 
of their clothes and left them lying on their backs, quite naked, without as 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



59 



much as one thread on them. Next day myself and six others went out and 
buried them in one grave." 

The Seward boys spoken of, Obadiah about twenty-one and John fifteen, 
were sons of James Seward, who resided on the hillside at Columbia. He 
had leased a part of the six hundred and forty acres in Turkey Bottom of 
Captain Stites, which the whites found cleared when they arrived. They 
were going unarmed from their father's house in Columbia to work on their 
land, no danger being apprehended; and when in the act of jumping over a 
large hickory tree, which Abel Cook had cut down to procure the nuts, 
they were attacked by two Indians who had concealed themselves in the 
tree top. Obadiah at once surrendered, and was fastened with thongs, but 
John made a desperate effort to reach home. The Indian on his side of the 
tree gained on him, and when within striking distance hurled his tomahawk, 
cleaving his skull behind the ear, and ran up and struck him again on the 
head, scalped and left him for dead, part of his brains oozing from his 
wound. But he was found by neighbors and lifted on the back of John 
Claw son, and carried home, where he lived thirty-nine days, becoming con- 
scious at times and reciting all the circumstances. 

Obadiah was carried off a prisoner to their towns near Sandusky, where 
he was held captive for some months. The Indians becoming tired of 
holding their prisoner, started with him and others to Fort Pitt, where they 
hoped to get them ransomed; but on the way, whilst Obadiah was driving 
some pack-horses, he accidentally took the wrong trail, whereupon a 
drunken Indian became very angry and shot him dead. His head was cut 
off, with a part of the skin of the breast adhering, and stuck upon a stalle 
on the side of the road. 

The other spoken of by John Dunlop as captured the same week at 
Columbia was a hired man of John Phillips, captured while topping corn. 
Mr. Seward hearcTnothing of his son until the return of this man, who was 
one of the party on the way to Fort Pitt, and witnessed the barbarous 
murder of Obadiah Seward. 

The same year, 1789, Abel Cook, who had been on a visit to his friends 
at Columbia, when on his return home to Covalt Station, near Milford, was 
attacked by Indians and killed. His body was found immediately after- 
wards and interred at Covalt Station. 

About the same time a party of men were out on a hunting expedition 



60 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

from Covalt Station, composed of A. Covalt, Jr., R. Fletcher, Levi Buck- 
ingham, Jacob Beagle, and Mr. Clemmons. They had gone but a short 
distance from the station, when Covalt discovered signs of Indians, and so 
a] (prised his companions, and advised a return to the fort to warn the 
inmates of their danger. They started back, but as yet had seen no 
Indians. Beagle and Clemmons had separated from the others. When 
they came to Shawnee Run they saw two Indians sitting on the bank, 
taking off their moccasins to walk across. 

Clemmons objected to Beagle shooting at them, as he was old and 
clumsy, and would surely fall a prey to them. The Indians did not go 
more than twenty rods up the river when they came in contact with the 
other three men. They fired upon them before the whites saw them. 
Covalt was wounded; he and Fletcher ran together for about a hundred 
yards, when he told Fletcher to make his escape, as he was shot through 
the breast and must fall. He fought them as long as he had strength, but 
soon the tomahawk did its deadly work. They scalped him, and took his 
rifle and powder horn, but threw his tomahawk away, which was found 
twenty years after by Levi Buckingham, and identified by the initials of his 
name upon it, and is still said to be in possession of his descendants in Illinois. 

The other four got safely to the fort, and rallying their little band, went 
and recovered Covalt's mutilated body. Captain Abraham Covalt soon 
fell a victim to the bloodthirsty savages. He had determined to build a 
house for his family outside the station, and while he, two of his sons, 
and Joseph Hinkle, were making shingles near the fort they were attacked 
\%j the Indians. Hinkle's head was nearly severed from his body. Captain 
Covalt was shot, and ran some distance, when he fell across a log with his 
arm under his head, and was soon despatched by the hatchet, and his scalp 
taken. At the same time Mr. Newal, another of the party, was killed. 
The bodies were brought to the fort and buried, where their graves may 
still be seen. 

Mrs. Joseph Jones, a daughter of Abraham Covalt, who was in the fort 
at the time, then fifteen years old, died some years since ; before her death 
she left the following interesting reminiscences of Captain Covalt's family 
and the station, corroborating the above statement. 

Although differing as to dates with other publications, it is the most 
complete history of Covalt's Station ever given to the public. It will be 



HIST OR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 6 1 

seen that she dates the landing of her father and his party at the mouth of 
the Little Miami, on the 19th of January, 1788, ten months earlier than 
that of Major Benjamin Stites, "November 18, 1788. We give it, however, 
as she left it, and as we received it from her daughter, Mrs. Hickoff, and 
her grand-daughter, Mrs. Hopkins, now residing at the Sixteen-Mile Stand, 
on the Montgomery Turnpike, Hamilton County, Ohio. This has never 
been published before. 

REMINISCENCES OF EARLY DAYS. 

I will call the attention of the reader to the early days of seventeen 
hundred and eighty-eight (1788). The 1st day of January of that year, I 
left Pennsylvania for Ohio, then called the Indian country, in company with 
Captain Covalt (who was my father) and seven other families; they were 
Robert McKinney, J. Pittman, J. Webb, J. Hutchens, David Smith, Z. 
Hinkle, T. Covalt and their families. It was with regret, not unmixed with 
pleasure, that we left our pleasant homes to contend with the red men who 
then inhabited this Western country. We moored our boats at Columbia on 
the 19th of January. We did not have the gay steamer that now plies the 
wide waste of waters, but the simple flat boat of our own construction. 
Captain Covalt had two boats, one fifty-five, the other forty feet long ; the 
family occupied one, the other for his stock and farming implements, for he 
came prepared for the wild woods. He had some twenty head of cattle, 
swine and sheep and seven horses, the best that had ever come to the West. 
We met with very few incidents of interest on our voyage, with the exception 
of one of our boats becoming stranded on the ice, and that filled our hearts 
with fear and terror. But with the united exertions of the men in the differ- 
ent boats we soon pursued our perilous voyage. As I have said, we landed 
cm the nineteenth (19) of January. We then erected a tent on the banks of 
the Little Miami, in which place we remained for one week, while the men 
were erecting a temporary dwelling; when it was completed they came for 
their families. We then moved to our new house, which was some seven 
miles from our tent, and one mile below where the town of Milford now 
stands. The first night that we stayed in our new homes there were forty- 
five in number. A fort was soon erected, which consisted of seventeen 
dwelling houses and four block houses. It was call«d Covalt's Fort He 
was the proprietor of it and owned the land ; his first purchase consisted of 
six hundred acres of land. My father soon built a mill ; he brought the mill 
stones and a millwright, whose name was Hinkle. This was the first mill 
in the Miami purchase. During this time we had not been molested but 
once by the Indians ; five days after we landed we had five of our horses 
stolen, valued at one hundred dollars apiece. 



62 ///STOAT OF CINCINNATI. 

The sound of the axe was heard in the thick wood, to fell the sturdy oak 
and remove the wide spreading branches from off the ground and prepare it 
for the summer crop. We were unmolested during the summer. In the 
fall they came into the neighborhood but they did but little damage. They 
killed one hog and roasted it and stole a horse from Mr. Baty. The Indians 
were pursued and one of them overtaken; he had creased the horse so badly 
that he could not travel very fast. The Indians had a rope over his shoulder 
and was pulling it along. When the white men got near enough three of 
them felled him to the ground. They scalped him and took his gun, toma- 
hawk, cap and knife, and brought them to the fort. Abraham Covalt and 
Abel Cook were chosen as their hunters to supply the inhabitants of the fort 
with game. This was a perilous mission. During the winter and spring 
the soldiers were often called out to repulse the red foe, who would come so 
near to the fort that we could hear the noise and confusion at the camp for 
two or three days at a time. Well do I remember one night whilst we were 
milking and the sentinels were guarding us some of the cattle ran against 
the fence and pushed off the boards. There were two Indians concealed 
behind the fence. They made their escape and when they arrived at their 
towns they told the prisoners what had happened and how they had acted. 

About this time the Indians became very troublesome. They attacked 
Dunlap's Station (now Colerain), and told the soldiers that they had taken 
Covalt's Fort, and had sent a company to take the fort at Cincinnati, and 
that they might as well surrender for they were bound to take the fort; but 
they had a brave commander, one who was not frightened by their savage- 
threats of cruelty. They fought with great bravery to defend their 
rights. Their commander was Lieutenant Hartshorn. During the siege he 
put his cap on a staff, and elevated it above his place of concealment. 
The savages fired at it, and it fell to the ground. The savages raised their 
well-known whoop, and filled the air with their hideous cries. By this time 
Captain Covalt had sent to Cincinnati for a reinforcement, which was sent 
to their relief, for had the Indians attacked it again before relief had 
come the besieged must have fallen a prey to the tomahawk and scalping 
knife. In June, 1788, a company of five men went out on a hunting 
expedition; they were A. Covalt, R. Fletcher, L. Buckingham, J. Beagle, 
and Clemens. After they had gone a short distance from the fort, Covalt 
said, " Boys, the Indians are not far off, we had better return to the fort, 
and apprise them of the approach of the Indians, so they can repulse them 
before they come any nearer." Still they did not see the Indians, but they 
started for the fort. The hunters had separated from each other; Beagle 
and Clemens were together ; when they came to Shawnee Run they saw 
two Indians sitting on the bank of the creek taking off their moccasins to 
wade over to the other side. Beagle wanted to shoot at them, but Clemens 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI 63 

said, " No, I am old and clumsy, and can't run, and 1 must become a prey 
to their savage cruelty." Beagle did not shoot. The Indians did not go 
more than twenty yards up the ravine when they came in contact with the 
other three men. The Indians fired before the white men saw them. 
Covalt was wounded. Fletcher and he ran together about a hundred 
yards, when Covalt said, " For God's sake, Fletcher, make your escape, 
for I am a dead man." He was shot through the breast, but he did not 
expire immediately after he fell. He had fought the Indians as long as he- 
had strength ; he had received several wounds in the face, and the toma- 
hawk soon did its work of death. They took his rifle and powder horn, 
but he threw away his tomahawk, which was found some twenty years 
after by his companion, Levi Buckingham. Thus ended the life of one of 
as brave sons of Pennsylvania as ever inhaled the morning air. He was 
as undaunted as a lion, and as active as the deer that bounds through 
the forests. In his deportment he was gentle and affable; he was beloved 
by all who knew him. He was twenty-one years of age when he fell a 
victim to the savage foe. He left many friends to bemoan his loss. The 
other four hunters got to the fort safe, and they soon called their little band 
together to go in search of Covalt. They brought him to the fort to pay 
their last tribute of respect to so brave a man. They did not pursue the 
foe, their number being too small to be divided. In about a month from the 
time spoken of the Indians were again seen prowling about the bank of the 
Miami. Abel Cook had been on a visit to his friends at Columbia, and on his 
return home to Covalt's Station, the Indians attacked and killed him. He 
was alone. His companions at the fort soon found him, and interred his 
body by the side of his hunting companion, with whom in life he roamed 
the dreary forests. We were not molested again until March of 1789, 
when they again invaded the Little Miami Valley. Captain Covalt wishing to 
live a more retired life, had got the timber ready for his house, but the farming 
was not completed. He, with two of his sons and Joseph Hinkle, were 
making the shingles when they were attacked by the Indians. Hinkle was 
not shot, but his head was half cut off with the tomahawk and then scalped. 
Captain Covalt was wounded in two places; one ball passed through his 
breast, the other through his arm. He told his sons to make their way to 
the fort, that he was wounded. He ran with axe in hand, about a hundred 
yards and fell across a log with his arm under his head; the scalping knife 
soon robbed it of the auburn locks that clustered around his noble brow, 
but his spirit had ascended to the God who gave it. 

I will now invite you back to the year 1743, to Captain Covalt's native 
place. He was born in New Jersey, near Great Egg Harbor, and was a 
resident of that place until he was eighteen years of age. He then em- 
barked on board a ship to fight for his country's cause. He was at the 



(3 4 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

storming of Martinico. In a short time afterwards he returned to his native 
place. There he became acquainted with a' lady by the name of Luis Pen- 
dleton, on whom he bestowed his fondest affections, which were duly recip- 
rocated by her, and they were joined in wedlock bands by the Rev- 
erend Mr. Fuller, in Bonbrook, New Jersey. After he was married he left 
the place of his nativity for Bedford County, Pennsylvania. There he was 
duly elected a Captain, which office he filled during the Revolutionary War. 
After the war was closed he came to this Western country to seek out a good 
location and then return for his family. He made the purchase previously 
spoken of, then returned to Pennsylvania to make preparations to move. 
He was blessed with six sons and four daughters. All of his children came 
with him to endure the trials of the Western wilds. But alas! he was cut 
down in the midst of life. He was a man who feared God with all his 
house, and his prayers and alms were held in remembrance. Well might 
the widow's heart bleed at the loss of so good a husband, and the children 
mourn at the loss of so kind a parent, when they beheld him weltering in 
his gore. They brought him to the fort, there to pay the last tribute of 
respect to one so noble and brave. They buried his remains on his own 
farm, where his grave can be seen to this day. This is but a small sketch 
of his life and character. The inmates of the fort were like sheep without a 
shepherd. They knew not what to do. Their leader was gone. His widow 
survived him until the year 1838, when she died at the advanced age of one 
hundred years. She was a true child of God. She was blessed with her 
mental powers to the last. 

After the death of Captain Covalt the Indians did not invade our bor- 
ders again until 1790. In November, 1791, General St. Clair called out the 
soldiers to battle, all that could be s'pared from every station. I do not 
remember the number that went from Covalt's Station. They were com- 
manded by Lieutenant Spears. Our number was then decreased so much 
that we were obliged to leave the fort. After St. Clair's defeat we all retired 
to Jarret's (Garard's) Station and did not return until February, 1792. 
Then we got a reinforcement again and returned to our own fort. 

Through the summer the Indians were very troublesome. The Indians 
took three of the most efficient men prisoners. Their names were Beagle, 
Coleman and Murphy. They were taken to Detroit and Beagle and Murphy 
were sold to the British, but they would not part with Coleman ; when he 
parted from his companions he wept like a child, for he knew his doom — it 
was to be burned at the stake. Beagle returned in three months. Murphy 
never returned, and Coleman was never heard of after he parted from his 
companions. Beagle said that when they were taken prisoners that they 
were not more than a quarter of a mile from the fort. The Indians did not 
shoot at them but caught and bound them. Murphy was the sentinel. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 65 

Beagle would not have been taken, but as he was running he caught his 
foot under a grapevine and fell. The savages were like the panther when 
in pursuit of prey; the moment he fell they sprang upon him and bound 
him. Not being content with their prisoners they killed a soldier by the 
name of Gocky, but his loss was not regretted; it was supposed that he was 
a traitor. The soldiers being always in readiness at the report of guns 
started in the direction of the sound in pursuit of the Indians. The savages 
saw them coming ; they ran around the hill and attacked the fort, knowing 
that the soldiers would have to return to the fort to protect it. They shot 
several bullets in the gate of the fort. I was the one that shut the gate, the 
men all being absent. But there were none injured. The Indians still con- 
tinued to prowl around the banks of the Miami and in the immediate vicinity 
of the fort. Not long after the invasion of the fort, Major Riggs and T. 
Covalt crossed the Little Miami; Covalt in search of his horses and Riggs 
to hunt pawpaws. On their return home Covalt stopped to look for the 
horse tracks ; Riggs stepped in the path before him ; in a moment the report 
of rifles was heard and Riggs fell. Covalt wheeled and ran to the river, 
where he was met by the soldiers. 

In the winter of the same year, the men had been grinding at the mill ; 
one night they returned to the fort, and that night the Indians came to the 
mill and emptied the grain out of the sacks on to the floor. Then they 
took down some tobacco, that had been hung up to dry, and crushed some 
of it among them, when they took the rest and sat down to stem it, and 
wait the approach of the miller. But the miller was detained until late, 
and thus saved his life. S. Gerston was the miller. They did no other 
damage at this time, with the exception of killing one cow. About this 
time General Harmar called the soldiers of the different stations together to 
go to the river, St. Marie's, to assist in burying those who were left 
dead on the field of battle after St. Clair's defeat. I heard those say, 
who were in the battle, that the day before the battle there were 
1,600 men, and of those but 900 returned to their homes. One of those 
who was there, said that on the morning of the battle, before daybreak, 
the Indians raised the war cry, which filled the soldiers' hearts with 
animation and courage. Their courage was soon tested. They fought 
like brave men, and fell in a glorious cause. When the word retreat 
was passed around, it caused their hearts to quake with fear; they ran 
in every direction amidst the shower of rifle balls. As one of the 
soldiers and his companion were ascending a hill, his companion was 
shot dead, and fell at his feet. He said that if he ran fast before, he ran 
faster afterwards. That was the last he saw of the Indians. Of all that 
left Covalt's Station but one returned. They left in great hopes of conquering 
the foe, but they never returned. The one that returned was Cheniah Covalt. 
5 



66 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

In the spring of '92 a company of men were hired by the government 
to treat with the Indians. They were William Smalley, and Truman, and 
his servant, I. Jerred, and one Flinn. William Smalley had been a prisoner 
with the Indians for eleven years. Before Smalley and his company got to 
the Indian towns, they were overtaken by two Indians, who said they 
would pilot them to their towns. When night came on the Indians said 
there were three white men, and but two Indians, that they must tie one of 
them ; (the other two had got separated from the three ; unthoughtedly they 
consented, and they tied the hands of the servant. Truman being over- 
come with fatigue, wrapped himself in a blanket, and went to sleep. The 
Indians now had the advantage of the white men. They killed Truman 
and his servant. Smalley ran to make his escape. The Indians called to 
him to come back; he said they would kill him; they said " No!" to come 
back. He came back and asked them what they killed the other men for. 
They said they wanted the money, and if they went to the towns they 
would get but little, and now they had it all. Smalley went with them to 
the towns. He expected to fall a victim to their savage cruelty, but to his 
great joy there he met with his old brother Indian, who sent him back to 
the station. Jarred and Flinn were never heard of after they left their 
comrades. In October the Indians invaded our neighborhood again, 
and took one young man whose name was Pelser prisoner. The men were 
plowing in the field about two hundred yards from him when he was taken, 
but they were not attacked. 

We lived quite peaceably through the winter and until the spring 
of '94. The inhabitants had begun to build their houses and improve 
their farms, and live like free men again ; but this peace was "of but short 
duration. 

The first notice that we had of their approach, two of the men had been 
at Columbia and were on their return to the fort, when the Indians attacked 
them. One of them, Jennings, was wounded, but he arrived at the fort. 
The other one, whose name was Crist, went to the Round Bottom fort 
to apprise them of the approach of the Indians; being apprised so soon of 
the approach of the Indians, they did but little damage. This was their 
last invasion. Old General Wayne soon compelled them to bury the 
hatchet and retire in peace. Now the inhabitants began to disperse, and 
the woodman's axe was heard in every direction. The wilderness of Ohio 
became the home of some of Pennsylvania's bravest sons. Much has been 
said concerning the settling of Ohio : some have stated that half a century 
ago Cincinnati was a wilderness, but they have been wrongly informed. In 
1 791 there were twenty-five small cabins and the garrison; and then 
Covalt's Fort had been erected three years. 

If this should at any time fall into the hands of friends of old pioneers, I 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



6 7 



hope they will think of the many hairbreadth escapes and trials of their 
forefathers, and consider it an honor, to be known as their descendants. 

The writer of this was Mary Covalt, the daughter of Captain Covalt. 
She was but fifteen years old when she left Pennsylvania. She was married 
in 1792, four years after she came to Ohio, to Joseph Jones, of Penn- 
sylvania. She was married by the Reverend John Smith, he being the first 
Baptist preacher that was in the Territory. The next Baptist preacher was 
the Reverend Daniel Clark. Her parents had letters of dismission from 
the Muddy Creek Baptist Church of Pennsylvania. Captain and his lady 
did not attend the organization of the church at Columbia, there being no 
way of conveyance, and they had their horses stolen. Mrs^ Jones was also 
a member of the Baptist Church. She was baptized at Harmer's Run, by 
the Reverend James Lyons. She has resided some twelve miles northwest 
of the old fort ever since her marriage until the time of her decease, which 
was some six years ago. 

Such is the story of one of the mothers of the West. A lady whose 
excellence of character, piety, and intelligence is proverbial among the 
pioneers of Hamilton County. As has been stated, she differs in date from 
some others, especially as to the first settlement on the Little Miami — ante- 
dating Major Stites' arrival near ten months ; but that there were settlements 
in Hamilton County prior to his landing at Columbia on November 18, 1788, 
we have the testimony of Reverend Thomas Hinde, a very intelligent and 
reliable pioneer, in a letter published in Cist's Cincinnati of 1854. 

Reverend John Hindman says that a party consisting of William West, 
John Simons, John Seft, and Mr. Carlin, with their families, left Washington 
County, Pennsylvania, in March, 1785. They landed at Limestone (Mays> 
ville) where they laid by two weeks. "The next landing we made was at the 
mouth of the Big Miami; we were the first company to land at that place. 
Soon after we landed the Ohio River raised and covered all the bottoms at 
its mouth; therefore, we went over to the Kentucky side and cleared thirty 
acres of land. Sometime in May or June, 1785, we went up the Big Miami 
to make what we called improvements, so as to secure a portion of the land, 
which we selected out of the best and broadest bottoms between Hamilton 
and the mouth of the river. We proceeded up where Hamilton now is, and 
made improvements wherever we found bottoms finer than the rest, all the 
way down to the mouth of the Miami. I then went up the Ohio again to 



68 



HISTOR V OF CINCINNA TJ. 



Buffalo, but returned the same fall and found Generals Clark, Butler, and 
Parsons at the mouth of the Big Miami, as commissioners to treat with the 
Indians. Major Finney was there also. I was in company with Symmes 
when he was engaged in taking the meanders of the Miami River, at the 
time John Filson was killed by the Indians." 




A 

< 

- 

Z 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA ff. 69 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Houses, Customs and Habits of the Pioneers — Difficulty of Procur- 
ing Provisions — Currency. 

r T~ , HE dwellings of the pioneers of the West were cabins built of unhewed 
logs with the bark on. At each end of the logs a notch was cut on 
one side; the other side was hewn off so as to fit in the notch. Poles were 
pinned lengthwise on top for rafters, upon which the clapboards were laid, 
and held in place by weight poles extending from one end to the other ; the 
lower one was held in place by wooden pins driven into the cross log at the 
top of the cabin ; the others were laid at regular distances to the top and kept 
in place by blocks extending from one to the other at each end. The floors 
(if they had any) were of puncheon boards, split from logs and hewn with 
the broad axe, and laid upon the joists, which were also logs. The doors 
were also of puncheon boards. If the floors were fastened to the joists it 
was with wooden pins, as were also the doors fastened to the batton. Nails 
were scarce and too high to be obtained by all. The chimney was built of 
logs and sticks plastered with clay, and usually occupied the greater part of 
one end of the cabin. Windows were small, and most frequently covered 
with paper greased with bear's grease, as few could afford to buy glass even 
when it could be had. Doors were hung on wooden hinges and fastened 
with a wooden latch, which was raised by a string. 

Their furniture was frequently, indeed generally, of the rudest kind. 
For tables a puncheon board with split sticks of wood, one at each corner 
for legs. Chairs, the old fashioned split bottom, and as substitutes stools 
and benches or blocks of wood were often used. Bowls and spoons were 
made of wood, and gourds answered the purpose of tin cups and dippers, 
and when cut off at the neck served as bottles. Their cooking utensils were 
few and simple— a Dutch oven, skillet and teakettle, and one or two pots 
of pot metal to hang over the fire on the old fashioned crane. Their buckets 
were made of wood with wooden hoops. 

The clothes which they had brought from the East were replaced by 
those made of home-spun linsey-woolsey or tow-linen and the skins of wild 



7 o 



HISTOR V OF CINCINNA TI. 



animals ; 'coon and bear skins furnished the men with caps instead of hats, 
and moccasins took the place of shoes. Every house had its little spinning 
wheel and the big wheel on which was spun the flax, the tow and wool that 
were woven into cloths for garments on the old fashioned loom, by the 
mothers and daughters of that day. They spun their own yarn then, but it 
was different from the yarns we often hear spun in these more prosperous 
times. Their clothes were of a color exceedingly unpopular in Northern 
States more recently. Their dye stuff was the bark of butternut, and 
fortunate, indeed, were they who could procure dye stuffs of different colors 
wherewith to stripe their cloths. 

The sick were kindly nursed by the neighbors, and when death entered 
the cabin of a pioneer every one possible went to the funeral, and the corpse 
was not borne to the grave on elliptic springs, in a gilded hearse at a 2:40 
gait, but reverently carried to the grave on a bier by the pioneers themselves. 

All their deprivations and inconveniences were borne cheerfully, and 
there was as much and more real happiness in the rude cabins of the first 
settlers than can be found in many of the more pretentious and palatial resi- 
dences of the present time. There was a mutual dependence upon one 
another, which all recognized, and a confidence between neighbors rarely 
found at the present* time. They were ever ready to assist one another, and 
had their enjoyments as well as their hardships. 

If a neighbor was sick or short-handed, and his crops needed harvesting, 
every one turned out with his sickle and rake to save it. If a cabin or barn 
was to be raised, an afternoon was appointed and all were invited to the 
frolic. So with corn huskings and quiltings and wood choppings ; no one 
thought of asking pay for such assistance — it was gratuitously and cheerfully 
given. Plenty of "Old Monongahela" and a good supper was always on 
hand, and at night the young people gathered in for their share of the fun, 
the young ladies clad in their home-spun and coarse shoes, and the young 
men in hunting shirts and coonskin caps, buckskin breeches and moccasins, 
while a darkey perched on a barrel in the corner of the room tuned his 
violin and struck up an "Old Virginia Reel" that would set all to dancing 
on the loose puncheon floor. They 

" Danced all night, till broad daylight, 
And went home with the girls in the morning." 

As the settlements were composed principally of old revolutionary 



k, aA\ 




HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA Tj. - , 

soldiers, they never forgot to celebrate the Fourth of July, but regularly 
met, with their families, at some chosen spot on that day, and heard 
from some one of their number the Declaration of Independence read, 
and the story of the seven years' struggle recounted. On such occasions 
the feast was free — a time of jubilee for all — and, while the young men 
enjoyed themselves at games, wrestling, shooting at marks, or foot racing, 
the old heroes would talk their battles over again, while they sipped their 
whisky punches. The celebration closed frequently with a frolic or dance 
at night. At a later date they had "Independence Balls," as the following 
invitation shows: 

INDEPENDENCE BALL. 

The honor of Mrs. S —'s company is solicited at a Ball to be held at the 

Columbian Inn, on Friday evening next, at 7 o'clock, in commemoration of the ■ 
Birthday of American Independence. 

MANAGERS. 

Francis Carr, I. C. Scott, 

P. A. Spricman, T. C. Baker, 

N. Longworth, W. Irwin, Jr. 
June, 30, 1812. 

Moccasins were substituted for shoes. The men usually dressed in 
linsey-woolsey hunting shirts, buckskin breeches, moccasins, and 'coon or 
bear skin caps; the women in linsey-woolsey, home-made stockings, and 
coarse shoes; sun bonnets answered the purpose of head dresses. Shoe- 
makers traveled from one settlement to another, with their kits on their 
backs, and schoolmasters boarded round from one family to another during 
the school session, which was usually in the winter only, as the children — 
both girls and boys — were needed in the fields to work during the summer. 

Their supply of provisions soon gave out after landing, and as they 
began the settlement in the autumn, they could not raise crops until the 
next summer. Flour could only be obtained from a chance boat from the 
Upper Ohio or Monongahela, and the price was so exhorbitant that few 
could afford to purchase it. They were, therefore, compelled to live on 
the wild game, which fortunately abounded in the forests around them ; 
deer, wild turkey, and bears; and in Kentucky buffalo were plenty. Meal 
could be had from Lexington, and other settlements in Kentucky, but the 
only means of transportation was on pack-horses, and they were very scarce 



?2 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

in the settlement ; or in canoe by the Licking River, and this was navi- 
gable only in high water during the spring and summer, and at all 
times dangerous Three of the pioneers went in a canoe up the Licking to 
procure breadstuff. The Licking was high, and in passing a bend in the 
river, the canoe struck a tree, and the men were precipitated into the 
stream; one swam ashore, another caught on and climbed a tree, but Noah 
Badgely, one of the first settlers, attempted to make shore, and was 
drowned. The one on the tree remained two days before taken off. Such 
were the deprivations of the pioneers for two years after they landed. The 
women and children would go to Turkey Bottom, above Columbia, and dig 
up bear grass roots, boil and dry, and pound them into a substitute for flour 
for various baking purposes. 

The money the pioneers brought with them was soon gone, and they 




substituted the skins of animals. A rabbit skin was a five-penny bit (6){ 
cents); a 'coon skin, an eleven-penny bit (12^ cents); a fox skin, twenty-five 
cents; a deer skin, fifty cents ; and these peltries passed as currency, with 
which they bartered for dry goods, etc. 

It was not an unusual thing to see the mothers and daughters of the 
west coming to town on horseback, with a bundle of peltries tied to their 
saddles, and a basket of eggs, or bucket of butter, to trade with John 
Bartel, the first merchant in the city, for store goods. His store was 
where the old Spencer House stands, at the corner of Front and Broad 
way. Pins and needles were used for smaller change by the merchants. 

What would the young ladies, aye, even the older ones, of our country 
think of coming to Shillito's or Pogue's at the present day in the manner 
illustrated to do their shopping? And yet it was through such depriva- 
tions and hardships the sturdy pioneers built up our great west, and our 
beautiful city. All honor to their memories. The next currency intro- 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



73 



duced after the 'coon skin was the sharp shin, and oblong. When the 
troops first arrived at Fort Washington they were paid in Spanish silver 
dollars; these the pioneers cut into four quarters, and finally into eighths for 
change, and they were called sharp shins. A smith cut the dollars for them, 
and to pay himself, he, after a whhe, cut them into five quarters, and kept 
one, and each passed for twenty-five cents for some time. But when mer- 
chants took them to Philadelphia to pay for goods, they were sent to the 
mint to be recoined, and the trick was discovered, as they were twenty per 
cent, short. The sharp shin was succeeded by the oblong. These were 
three dollar United States notes, made of that denomination to pay the 
soldiers, as their pay was three dollars a month. 



74 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Major Doughty Ordered to Losantiville With Troops to Protect 
Settlers and Erect Fortifications— General Arthur St. Clair, 
Governor Northwest Territory, Arrives January i, 1790 — Great 
Rejoicing on His Arrival — Constitutes Hamilton County — Ap- 
points Civil and Military Officers — Proceeds to Vincennes. 

T N the meantime, by the urgent representations of the settlers at Columbia, 
Losantiville and North Bend, concerning the dangers by which they 
were surrounded, the government directed Major Doughty to proceed to 
Losantiville with troops and erect fortifications, where he arrived about the 
1st of June, 1789, in command of Captain Strong's, Pratt's, Kingsbury's 
and Kearsey's infantry and Captain Ford's artillery. On his arrival he im- 
mediately constructed four stockades on the bank of the river, between 
Broadway and Ludlow Streets, and began the construction of Fort Washing- 
ing on Third Street, between Broadway and Ludlow Streets, on the 16th of 
August, on a Government reservation of fifteen acres, which he completed 
in the latter part of November, sending out in the meantime an increased 
number of troops to North Bend, Columbia and Covalt's. General Harmar 
arrived at Fort Washington with 320 men, composed of Captain Wyly's and 
Major Fountain's battalions of regular troops, on the 29th of Decem- 
ber, 1789. 

On the 1st day of January, 1790, General St. Clair, then Governor of 
the Northwest Territory, arrived amidst great rejoicings of the inhabitants. 
He came down on a flatboat and was met at the landing and escorted to 
Fort Washington by the military and citizens, whilst a salute of fourteen 
guns was fired by the artillery. 

A story is related of General St. Clair to the effect that when he arrived 
near Losantiville, and standing on the roof of the boat looking at the town 
of cabins, he asked: "What in h — 1 is the name of this town anyhow?" 
And well might he ask, for there was no such word as Losantiville in any 
known language. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



75 



On the 2d of January the citizens and military gave him a grand ban- 
quet, when he changed the name of the town to Cincinnati, in honor of the 
society of that name, composed of ex-officers of the Revolutionary Army, 
of which he was a conspicuous and prominent member. This society had 
been so called in honor of the Roman patriot Cincinnatus, who had left his 
plow to take up arms in defense of his country, and when that was accom- 
plished laid aside his sword and returned to his farm again, and many of the 
soldiers of the Revolutionary Army had done the same. The society was 
organized to keep in remembrance the scenes of their struggle for inde- 
pendence, and to keep alive the friendships then formed, and to care for the 
widows and orphans of their deceased fellow-officers. 

On the 2d of January, 1790, General St. Clair issued his proclamation, 
erecting the " County of Hamilton," in honor of Alexander Hamilton, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, the name having been suggested by Judge Symmes, 
describing its boundaries as follows : 

"Beginning at the confluence of the Ohio and Little Miami Rivers, and 
down the said Ohio River to the mouth of the Big Miami, and up said 
Miami to the Standing Stone Forks, or branch of said river, and thence 
with a line to be drawn due east to the Little Miami River, and down said 
Little Miami River to the place of beginning." 

On the same day Commissioners for the County Court of Common Pleas 
and General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for said County, were granted 
by the Governor. William Goforth, William Wills and Wm. McMillan 
were appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas and Justices of the 
General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and quorum of said Court ; and Ben- 
jamin Stites, John Stites Gano and Jacob Topping were commissioned 
Justices of the Peace. Israel Ludlow, Prothonatory to the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas and Clerk of the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace of the 
County. Israel Ludlow, James Flinn, John Stites Gano and Gurshom Gard 
were commissioned Captains, and Francis Kennedy, John Ferris, Luke 
Foster and Brice Virgin, Lieutenants; and Scott Traverse, Ephraim Kibby, 
Elijah Stites and John Dunlop were appointed Ensigns of the First Regiment 
of the Militia of Hamilton County. Francis Kennedy resigned, and Scott 
Traverse was appointed Lieutenant, and Robert Benham, Ensign in place 
of Scott Traverse, promoted to Lieutenant. 

Having completed the organization of Hamilton County by the appoint- 



76 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



ment of these civil and military officers, for the protection of the citizens, 
and making Cincinnati the county seat, Governor St. Clair left for Fort 
Vincennes to conciliate the savages, if possible, who were manifesting a very 
hostile spirit, and to organize the territory west of Hamilton County. 

Here it ma^ be proper to refer briefly to the causes which led to the 
hostilities of the Indians, and to give an account of the campaign of 
Harmar and St. Clair, more especially as Cincinnati became the head- 
quarters where the military, for the protection of the northwest, ren- 
dezvoused, and from which they started on the several expeditions against 
the Indians. 

The campaigns of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, are so intimately 
connected with the history of Cincinnati, that upon their issues not only 
the fate of the settlements between the two Miamis, but all others in the 
northwest, as well as in Kentucky, depended. Moreover, the greater part of 
the able-bodied male inhabitants of Cincinnati, Columbia, Covalt Station, and 
North Bend, were engaged in these several expeditions, and half of them 
were killed. The difficulties, those best acquainted with the Indian charac- 
ter apprehended would arise out of the second treaty of Fort Stanwix in 
1784, Fort Mcintosh in 1785, Fort Finney (Big Miami) in January, 1786, 
and at Fort Harmar in 1788, began to manifest themselves as soon as it was 
apparent permanent settlements were being established on the northwest of 
the Ohio. 

The Indians claimed that at neither of these treaties were all the nations 
interested represented, and that at best they were only treaties bf peace, 
and not for transfers of titles to their land, and if any such pretended 
transfers had been made, they were not binding on the nations not repre- 
sented. 

The Miamis, and other tribes, were particularly hostile to the conditions 
of these treaties, because, as they said, they had not been consulted, and 
were not bound to yield the lands north of the Ohio. They wanted the 
Ohio to be a perpetual boundary between the red and white man, and 
would not agree to sell a foot north of it. They declared that such was 
the feeling of their young men, that they could not be restrained from 
making war upon the " Long Knives," and again to renew the bloody 
attacks on the settlements and emigrants in Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
and Kentucky. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



77 



On entering upon the responsible duty of Governor of the Great North- 
west Territory, General St. Clair was authorized and required : 

' ' To examine carefully into the real temper of the Indians ; 

' ' To remove, if possible, all causes of controversy with them, so that 
peace and harmony might exist between them and the United, States. 

" To regulate the trade with them. 

" To use his best efforts to extinguish the rights of the Indians to lands 
eastward to the Mississippi, and northward to the forty-first degree of 
latitude. 

' ' To ascertain, as far as possible, the names of the real head men and 
leading warriors of each tribe, and to attach these men to the United 
States. 

' ' To defeat all combinations between the tribes by conciliatory means. 

"To organize the territory next west of Hamilton County." 

To carry out the above instructions Governor St. Clair and Secretary 
Winthrop Sargent descended the river to (then) Clarksville, at the falls of 
the Ohio, on their way from Cincinnati to Vincennes. From there he sent a 
messenger to Major Hamtranck, commanding at Vincennes, with speeches 
to be forwarded to the Indians at the Wabash, whq were all beginning to 
manifest considerable hostility towards the whites. 

Shortly after he and Winthrop Sargent, the Secretary of the Territory, 
proceeded on their way along the Indian trail to Vincennes, and whilst he 
was organizing the Territory, Major Hamtranck was engaged personally in 
the effort to conciliate the Wabash Indian tribe. He employed Antoine 
Gamilon, an intelligent French merchant of Vincennes, to carry messages 
of the Government to the Indians. He started on the fifth day of May, 
1790, and visited all the Indian villages on the Wabash and as far east as 
Kckionggoy, the Miami village at the junction of the St. Joseph and St. 
Mary's Rivers (now Fort Wayne). The result of his expedition was not 
successful, and it was found that a severe chastisement was the only means 
of suppressing their murderous attacks upon the settlements. 



7 8 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Harmar's Campaign — General Harmar was Ordered To Take Com- 
mand of the Campaign Against the Indians 

"\ A 7 1 1 EN the Indians saw the whites intrenching themselves in forts and 
block houses, cabins being erected, the forests falling beneath the 
stroke of the woodman's axe, and the game, their principal means of sup- 
port, fleeing as civilization advanced, their range circumscribed, and that 
they were cut off from their cherished and most favorite hunting grounds, 
such shrewd and far seeing minds as Cornstalk, Logan, Cornplanter, Little 
Turtle, Brant, and other great chiefs, could not fail to understand that 
every fort and block house, indeed, every cabin erected and occupied by 
the white man, and every patch that was cleared and cultivated, but too 
plainly pointed to the fact that if permitted to exist and multiply, would 
inevitably and speedily result in the ejectment of the red man from his 
native land and hunting grounds, and that ere long he would be com- 
pelled to leave the scenes of his childhood and the graves of his fathers, 
a wanderer in a strange land, far toward the setting sun, or ex- 
terminated. 

To the most casual observer it was evident that the two races could not 
live in harmony together whilst it was the policy of the one to clear and 
cultivate the land and introduce civilization ; and the determination of the 
other to keep the country a wilderness, in its pristine state, and to maintain 
the customs and habits of savage life. 

Man, civilized or untutored, instinctively loves the land in which he was 
born as the child loves the mother; and no race of men were ever more 
attached to their native lands and homes than the North American Indians, 
who left them only when overpowered. 

It was this love of country — in civilized life called patriotism — so strong 
in the Indian heart, that made him dread the encroachments of the white 
man, and was the underlying cause of that determined and persistent 
hostility, which all the exertions and tact of the American Government 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 7 9 

could not allay. To the red man it was a contest for life, home, country, 
and his own wild, unrestrained liberty. 

"To them the deep recess of shady groves, 
Or forest where the deer securely roves, 
The fall of waters, and song of birds, 
And hills that echo to the distant herds, 
Are luxuries excelling all the glare 
The world can boast and her chief favorites share." 

A grand conference of all the western tribes had been held at Chilli- 
cothe in 1782, to determine what measures should be adopted to secure 
them in the possession of their lands. It was alleged at the time that the 
design was to unite all the warriors of the several tribes into one grand 
army, and thus united, to march upon the settlements west of the Alleghe- 
nies and utterly destroy all the white inhabitants, sparing neither age nor 
sex, leaving nothing to indicate that settlements had been made, save the 
ashes of pioneer cabins and the mutilated remains of their inhabitants. 

That the important question to be considered at this conference was the 
annihilation of the whites in the' West is a well established fact, but the plan 
adopted to accomplish the cruel purpose was different from what was then 
supposed, and it is extremely doubtful whether it ever was contemplated to 
unite their forces into one army. In the very nature of things it would have 
been impossible. Their precarious mode of living, depending principally 
upon hunting for subsistence, would have rendered it impossible to accumu- 
late a sufficient amount of provisions to subsist such an organization through 
a protracted campaign, even if their improvident habits would have per- 
mitted it. Of these facts their chiefs were fully aware, and instead of uniting 
their tribes they divided into two great marauding parties ; the one to strike 
Kentucky, the other the settlements in Western Pennsylvania and Western 
Virginia, with the tomahawk and scalping knife. It has already been 
shown how fearfully they carried out their designs, keeping the borders 
in a distressingly disturbed state up to the time settlements were made on 
the northwest side of the Ohio in 1788. 

The government was just going into operation. Weak financially, but 
patriotically strong and hopeful, it found it necessary to protect its western 
territories. The appeals of the pioneers were irresistable, and for this pur- 
pose a detachment of 320 regular troops were enlisted in New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania and Virginia and placed under the command of General Josiah 



8o HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

Harmar, to proceed to the western frontiers to erect necessary forti- 
fications. 

General Harmar had been a Colonel in the Revolutionary Army, where 
he served with credit to himself and benefit to the cause of independence. 

Overtures of peace had been exhausted, treaties were disregarded and 
the settlers were daily victims of the ruthless barbarities of the savages. It 
became evident that nothing but a severe chastisement would give peace to 
the frontiers. 

A force of 1,133 drafted militia and volunteers from Pennsylvania, Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky was also placed under his command in 1790. 

The regulars consisted of two battalions, commanded respectively by 
Major Wyly's and Doughty, and a company of artillery, under Captain Fur- 
guson, with three brass field pieces of ordnance. Colonel Hardin was in 
command of the militia in which Colonel Trotter, of Kentucky, and Paul, of 
Pennsylvania, Majors Hall and McMullen held subordinate commands. 
The orders to General Harmar were to march on the Indian towns adjacent 
to the lakes and inflict such signal punishment as would in the future protect 
the infant settlements from the depredations from which they had so long 
suffered. The whole plan had been devised by Washington, and it is not 
easy to conceive why he should have selected such men as Harmar and St. 
Clair, who were destitute of the training neccessary to become successful 
Indian fighters, whilst he could have found many soldiers in Xentucky, 
Pennsylvania and Virginia, such as Lewis, Clark, Boone and Logan, com- 
petent in every way, already distinguished in Indian warfare, ready and 
eager at any moment to enter upon such service. It is the more surprising, 
as by his own training and experience in Indian fighting, and knowledge of 
the West before the Revolutionary War, he learned much practically of the 
Indian character. St. Clair and Harmar, it is true, had been brave and 
efficient officers in the struggle for independence, but neither had that, 
peculiar knowledge necessary to successfully conduct a campaign against the 
savages, which could only be gained by experience in dealing with the wily 
foes, they were soon to meet. The Western men desired to be led by men, 
of their own selection, and were dissatisfied in being placed under the com. 
mand of a regular officer. They had not forgotten Braddock's defeat. 

General Harmar arrived in Cincinnati on the 29th of December, 17S9, 
and took command of Fort Washington. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 8 1 

He had been stationed at Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, 
waiting for the militia force and army supplies from the upper country, and 
the completion of Fort Washington, which Major Doughty, with 146 men 
from Fort Harmar, had been detached in June to construct. 

From the period of his arrival at Fort Washington to September, 1790, 
he had been engaged in providing for the protection of the settlement in the 
Miami Purchase, and in making arrangements for the grand expedition 
towards the lakes, against the Indians, should it become necessary. On the 
26th of that month Colonel Hardin started on the campaign with the 
militia, and was followed on the 30th by General Harmar with the regular 
forces. His orders of march and encampment will be found in the journal 
of Lieutenant Armstrong. 

On the 14th Colonel Hardin was detached with one company of regulars 
and 600 militia, in advance of the main body, being charged with destruc- 
tion of the towns in the forks of the Maumee. On the arrival of the 
advance troops, they found the towns abandoned by the Indians, and the 
principal one burned — the main body marching on the 14th ten miles, and 
on the 15th eight miles, in a northwest course; on the 16th the army made 
nine miles, and on the 17th it crossed the Maumee River to the village, and 
formed a junction with Hardin at the Omee (Miami) villages. The Indians 
had seven villages in the vicinity of the junction of the St. Mary and St. 
Joseph Rivers, which form the Maumee River. 

The first was the Miami village, so called after the tribe of that name, 
sometimes called the Omee village, a contraction of Ou Miami, given by 
the French traders, who resided there in large numbers. It was situated in 
the fork of the St. Joseph and Maumee. 2d. A village of the Miamis, 
containing thirty houses, Kikioge, where Fort Wayne, Indiana, is now situ- 
ated, in the forks of the St. Mary and Maumee. 3d. Chillicothe, a name 
signifying "town," a village of the Shawnees, below on the north bank of 
the Maumee, containing fifty-eight houses. Opposite this was another con- 
taining eighteen houses, of the same tribe. The Delawares had two 
villages, about three miles from its mouth, opposite each other; they con- 
tained forty-five houses, and another, on the east side of the St. Joseph, 
two or three miles from its mouth, of thirty-six houses. 

The day of Harmar's junction with Hardin, two Indians were discov- 
ered by a scouting party, as they were crossing the prairie; the scouts pur- 



g 2 HIS TORY OF CINCINNA TI. 

sued them, shot one of them, the other escaping. A young man named 
Samuel Johnston, seeing the Indian was not dead, attempted to shoot him 
again, when the Indian partly raised his rifle, and shot Johnston through 
the body, inflicting a mortal wound. 

The same night the Indians succeeded in driving through the lines be- 
tween fifty and one hundred horses, and bore them off, to the no small 
mortification of the whites. The same day, October 17, the troops were 
employed in searching in. the hazel thickets for hidden treasure. A large 
quantity of corn was found' buried in the earth. On the evening of this 
day, Captain McClure, and a Mr. McClary, fell upon a stratagem, peculiar 
to backwoodsmen, to entrap the enemy. A horse was taken a short dis- 
tance down the river undiscovered; they fettered him, and unstrapped the 
bell, concealing themselves within easy rifle range. An Indian, attracted 
by the tinkling of the bell, came cautiously up, and began to untie the 
horse, when McClure shot him. The report of the gun alarmed the camp, 
and many soldiers rushed out to the spot to see what it meant. A young 
Indian, taken prisoner at Loramie, was brought to see the Indian just 
killed, and pronounced him to be "Captain Punk," great man, Delaware 
chief. The army burned all the houses in the village, and destroyed about 
20,000 bushels of corn, found hidden in various places; much of it burned. 
Considerable property belonging to the French traders was also destroyed 
in the general conflagration. 

On the 1 8th of October the main body of the troops was moved to 
Chillicothe, the principal town of the Shawanees, General Harmar having 
previously detached a party of thirty regulars and one hundred and eighty 
militia in pursuit of the Indians, who had retired westward across the St. 
Joseph after they had destroyed Omee town, Captain John Armstrong com- 
manding the regulars and Colonel Trotter, of the Kentucky militia, com- 
manding the entire force. They failed to overtake the main body, cutting 
off only a few stragglers, and being signaled by the firing of a six-pounder, 
returned to camp late in the evening. The next morning the same force 
was ordered out under the command of Colonel Hardin. They pursued the 
same direction in search of their enemy, and finding himself in their neigh- 
borhood, he detached Captain Faulkner, of the Pennsylvania militia, to 
form on his left, which he did at such a distance that his company was of 
no assistance in the engagement which followed. Hardin's command 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 



83 



moved forward to what they discovered to be the encampment of the 
savages, which was flanked by a morass on either side, as well as by one in 
front, which was crossed with great promptness by the troops, now reduced 
to less than two hundred, who, before they had time to form, received a 
galling and unexpected fire from a large body of concealed savages. The 
militia immediately broke and fled, despite all the efforts of the officers to 
rally them, fifty-two of them being killed in a few minutes. The enemy 
pursued until Major Fountaine, who had been sent to hunt up Captain 
Faulkner and his company, returning with them, compelled the Indians to 
retire, and the survivors reached camp in safety. The regulars, under 
Armstrong, bore the brunt of this affair, one Sergeant and twenty-five pri- 
vates being killed on the battle-ground out of thirty men. They were 
thrown into disorder by the militia breaking through their ranks and 
flinging away their arms without firing a shot, while they were en- 
deavoring to maintain their position. The Indians killed nearly one hun- 
dred men. 

The strength of the savages has been variously stated. Marshall, in his 
life of Washington, puts it at seven hundred, whilst Lieutenant Armstrong, 
a regular officer, and an active participant in the fight, who would not under 
the circumstances be liable to underestimate their forces, as twenty-five out 
of thirty of his men were killed, says it was about one hundred. The great 
strength of the Indians was in their well chosen position and in the panic of 
the militia, who formed numerically the principal force against them. 

The terrible slaughter took place near where the Goshen road crosses 
Eel River, about twelve miles from the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
Captain Armstrong broke through the pursuing Indians and plunged into 
the deepest of the morass referred to, where he remained, to his chin, 
all night, in the water, with his head hidden by a bunch of high swamp 
grass. In this position he was compelled to listen to the savage orgies of 
the Indians through the night over the dead bodies of the brave men. 

As day approached the Indians retired to rest, and Armstrong, chilled 
to the last degree, extricated himself from the swamp, but found himself 
obliged to kindle a fire in a ravine, into which he crawled, having his tinder 
box, watch, and compass still on his person. By the aid of the fire he 
recovered his feelings and use of his limbs, and at last reached the camp in 
safety. For some years bayonets were found on the spot and bullets were 



84 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

cut out of the trees in such quantities as to fully attest the desperate charac- 
ter of this engagement. 

On the 2 1 st the army left Chillicothe on its return to Fort Washington, 
marching eight miles that clay, when the scouts, who had been scouring the 
country, came in and reported that the Indians had re-occupied the "Omee " 
village lying in the junction of St. Joseph and Maumee Rivers. Colonel 
Hardin, anxious to wipe out the stain of the defeat of the 19th, asked per- 
mission to once more attack the enemy, and Colonel Harmar, equally 
anxious to efface the stigma resting upon the American Army, detached 
Colonel Hardin with orders to surprise the savages and bring on an engage- 
ment. His force consisted of three hundred militia and sixty regulars, under 
command of Major Wylys. He arrived at the "Omee" town early on the 
morning of the 22d of October. He divided his force into two divisions; 
the left, under McMullen, was to form down the St. Mary River and cross 
at the ford and rest until daylight, and cross the St. Joseph and commence 
the attack on the Indians in front who had encamped out near the ruins ot 
their town. The right division, under Hardin and Wylys, were to proceed 
to " Harmar's Ford" on the Maumee, where they were to remain until Mc- 
1Y1 ullen's party had reached the river, and commenced the attack, which was 
to be the signal for them to cross the Maumee and attack the Indians in the 
rear. 

Owing to the ignorance, but more probably the treachery of the guides, 
McMullen's command lost its way in the thickets through which they had 
to pass, and, although traveling all night, they did not reach the ford until 
daylight. 

As soon as the Indians, who had been encamped about the ruins of their 
town, discovered Hardin's men they began to rally for the fight, the alarm 
spreading and they rushing in. Colonel Hardin discovering that unless he 
crossed immediately he would be compelled to do it in the face of superior 
numbers, and expecting every moment to hear of McMullen's men in his 
rear, gave the order to cross, and by the time two-thirds of his men had 
passed over the battle began. 

The engagement which ensued was extremely severe. The desperation 
of the savages surpassed anything previously known, except at Point Pleasant 
in 1774, and the greater part throwing down their arms, rushed on the 
bayonets, tomahawks in hand, thus rendering everything useless but the 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



85 



rifles of the militia, carrying rapid destruction everywhere in the advance. 
While this carnage was going on the rifles of the remaining Indians were 
employed in picking off the officers. Major Wylys and Fountaine, both 
brave and valuable officers, fell directly after the battle began, the former 
pierced with eighteen balls. Fifty-one of sixty of Wylys' regulars shared 
his fate, and the other divisions suffered severely in both killed and 
wounded. 

Major McMullen came up with his division whilst the battle was raging, 
but could not turn the tide, but succeeded in enabling the discomfited troops 
to retire in comparatively good order. Whatever may be said of the com- 
mand of the militia in the affair of the 19th, they behaved with great gallantry 
in this battle and received the thanks of General Harmar in the following 
order, issued on the 2 2d at the camp, eight miles from the ruin of the 
Maumee town: 

"The General is exceedingly pleased with the behavior of the militia in 
the action of this morning. They have laid very many of the enemy dead 
upon the spot. Although our loss is great, still it is inconsiderable in com- 
parison to the slaughter among the savages. Every account agrees that up- 
wards of one hundred warriors fell in the battle ; it is not more than man for 
man, and we can afford them two for one. The resolution and firm determined 
conduct of the militia this morning has effectually retrieved their character 
in the opinion of the General. He knows they can and will fight." 

This was putting the best face on the disaster, and his incompetency for 
the position he held. With a force, within eight miles of the enemy, strong 
enough to annihilate them, to content himself with sending out detachments, 
to be successively destroyed, whilst three-fourths of his army remained 
inactive within hearing of the battle, not permitted to go to the rescue of 
their comrades, does not seem to be very conclusive evidence of a great mili- 
tary genius. As well might he have kept the rest of his army at Fort Wash- 
ington. 

He appears to have been fully consoled for the loss of his brave officers 
and men, who fell by the savage tomahawk and scalping knife, by the reflec- 
tion expressed in his general order, that the Americans could afford to lose two 
for one of the enemy. There appeared no good reason why the whole force 
should not have been brought into action; and yet the "Court of Inquiry," 
in 1 791, justified all his acts and conduct of the campaign. "But those who 



8 6 HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 

participated in this campaign, and the country generally, viewed it in a 
different light. It has even been claimed, by some historians, that the 
American troops were not defeated, and, as a proof of this, their regu- 
lar retreat, and the destruction of the towns and provisions of the enemy, 
are cited as conclusive evidence that they were not defeated ; but when it is 
remembered that both the attacks of the 19th and 2 2d were repulsed by the 
Indians with terrible slaughter, and both detachments were compelled to fall 
back to the main body, leaving two-thirds of their number on the field of 
battle, slaughtered, where their bones lay bleaching for four years after- 
wards, until General Wayne had them gathered and buried, and that 
the savages followed close on the heels of the army to the immediate vicinity 
of Fort Washington, without another effort on the part of General Har- 
mar to attack or drive them back, it may well be said that Harmar might 
h ive exclaimed : 

" One more such victory, and I am undone ! " 
Generals who are victorious, are not apt to be superseded in command ; 
yet Harmar was superseded, and relieved by General St. Clair, and, 
although he and Colonel Hardin demanded a "Court of Inquiry" into 
their conduct, by which they were justified, he left Fort Washington soon 
after his return to that post, and lived until 1803 in comparative obscu- 
rity, on the Schuylkill River, above Philadelphia, where he died. 

Viewing his campaign dispassionately at this distant period, now almost 
a hundred years since it occurred, when the passions of those who might 
have been prejudiced against him in the regular army, or the efforts of par- 
tisans, who would endeavor to justify his conduct in the war, have passed 
away, and comparing it with the campaigns of Clark, Boone, and Kenton, 
it can not but be regarded as a most disastrous defeat ; scarcely less so than 
that of Braddock. 

The savages so considered it, as was evidenced by their continued 
predatory and murderous incursions into the settlements, which immediately 
followed. In justification of his retreat without giving battle to the enemy 
with his whole force, it has been said, he had no confidence in the militia, 
by reason of the enmity that existed between them and the regular troops. 
Yet he complimented them in no measured terms in his order of the 22d for 
their gallantry in the battle of that morning, and surely no troops ever 
fought more bravely in the face of almost certain destruction than this 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 87 

same militia, and none were more justly entitled to the confidence of their 
commander. 

General Harmar could not be accused of cowardice ; he had proved his 
courage on many a bloody field during the Revolutionary War, and had the 
entire confidence of President Washington and General St. Clair. Still, 
to say the least of it, his management of the campaign was inexplicable. 

The defeat of Harmar — for it was nothing else — alarmed the settlers, 
especially on the northwest of the Ohio, and a considerable number left 
Losantiville, Columbia, and North Bend, and settled in Kentucky, and 
many on their way by river to join settlements in Ohio passed on to the 
Kentucky River for settlements in that State. It was seen, therefore, that 
something more efficient must be done, else the settlements in Ohio would 
be abandoned. General St. Clair was appointed commander-in-chief of 
the forces to be raised. Great hopes were entertained that he would 
inflict such punishment upon the savages as would give perfect security 
to the pioneers and their families, but, as we shall see, it was a vain hope. 



88 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The First Churches Organized. 

TTARD and exposed as their lives appeared to be the early settlers did 
not forget or neglect their religious duties, nor that other handmaid 
of civilization, the education of their children. 

Religious services were held and schools were taught in the block 
houses. 

The Baptist Church at Columbia was the first organized in the county, 
on the zoth day of March, 1790, at the house of Benjamin Davis, and the 
first sermon preached by Rev. David Jones, in the block house built by 
Major Benjamin Stitcs. There were six Baptists in his party when he 
landed. 

The names of those who were present were Benjamin Davis, Mary 
Davis, Isaac Ferris, J. Reynolds, Amy Reynolds, John Ferris, Thomas C. 
Wade, John S. Gano and Elizabeth Ferris. 

Isaac Ferris was chosen Deacon and John S. Gano Clerk. 

On the 20th of June three more were added to the Church by baptism — 
Elijah Stitcs, Rhoda Stites and Sarah Ferris. 

They endeavored to prevail upon Rev. Stephen Gano to become their 
pastor, but he had not emigrated permanently to the West, and declined. 
Rev. John Smith was chosen pastor, but was compelled to return East to 
settle up his affairs, and while absent Rev. Daniel Clark, from Whitely 
Church, Greene County, Pa., supplied this place while absent, and preached 
for them for about five years. In 1791 fifteen were added to the Church by 
letter and two by baptism. On the nth day of February, 1792, it was re- 
solved to build a meeting-house, and five trustees were appointed. Benja- 
min Stites gave a lot to the Baptists of Columbia Township upon which to 
build their meeting-house. It is the old burying ground at the upper end of 
Columbia, upon which the first house was built, and still belongs, according 
to the deed, to the Baptists of Columbia Township; but the old Church 




First Baptist Church at Columbia. . 

The above cut has been generally accepted as representing the first house of worship in the County 
at Columbia; but (). M. Spencer, in his reminiscences, says this was the second; that the first house 
erected on the same spot was a rough log house, and that this represents the second built. (See Howe's 
History of Ohio). The late Zadduck Williams, ol Mt. Lookout, has frequently told the author that the 
first was a log cabin where he attended church with his father's family. 




First Pkksisyterian Church, Fourth and Main. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 89 

has long since been torn down, and the graves of the pioneers are all 
that remain to tell of the days long gone. 

"A sacred band; 
They take their sleep together, while the year 
Comes with its early flowers to deck their graves, 
And gathers them again as winter frowns." 

It is a burning shame, and an everlasting disgrace to their descendants, 
that they have not long since erected a monument over their graves, on this 
sacred spot. It is a stigma they should wipe out at once by erecting one on 
the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement, and unveil it on the 18th 
of November next. 

When the old church was built those who attended were required to 
carry their rifles with them to protect themselves from the savages, and 
whilst services were being held in the church sentries were pacing their beats 
around it. 

The next religious society was the First Presbyterian Church. 

In laying out the town of Cincinnati the proprietors dedicated in-lots 
Nos. 100, 115, 139 and 140 to church and school purposes. The succeed- 
ing year Rev. David Rice, of Kentucky, organized a religious society of the 
Presbyterian faith and order, which proceeded to occupy the premises thus 
set apart, but found themselves at that day too feeble, even with such aid 
as they could obtain in the town, to build a church edifice ; the only use, 
therefore, for some time made of the premises was that of a graveyard. Meet- 
ings for worship were held at a horse mill, on Vine street, below where Third 
street has since been opened, being then the foot of the hill, and, also, occa- 
sionally at private houses. 

John Smith, of Columbia, then a Baptist preacher, better known since 
as one of the early Senators from Ohio in the United States Senate, and 
implicated in Aaron Burr's memorable project, occasionally preached to the 
society. 

In 1791 a number of the inhabitants formed themselves into a company 
to escort the Rev. James Kemper from beyond the Kentucky River to Cin- 
cinnati They accompanied him hither, and on his arrival a subscription 
was set on foot to build a meeting-house. Before this time the trees upon 
a portion of the lot at the corner of Fourth and Main streets had been par- 
tially cleared, and within a small circle, seated upon the logs, the people 



9 o 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



met for worship, in the open air, with their rifles by their sides. In 1792 
the meeting-house was erected, and the whole four lots were inclosed with a 
post and rail fence. The timber for the building was taken from the spot 
upon which it was erected. The subscription paper for the erection of the 
church is still in existence. It is dated January 16, 1792. It is headed as 
follows: 

We, the subscribers, for the purpose of erecting a house of public wor- 
ship in the village of Cincinnati, to the use of the Presbyterian denomina- 
tion, do severally bind ourselves and executors firmly and by these presents 
the several sums of money and commutations in labor, respectively annexed 
to our names, to be paid to John Ludlow, Jacob Reeder, James Lyon, 
Moses Miller, John Thorpe, and William McMillan, or either of them, their 
heirs or administrators, trustees appointed for the business of superintending 
the building aforesaid, payments to be made as follows: One-third part of 
our several subcriptions to be paid so soon as the timbers requisite for the 
aforesaid building may be collected on the ground where the said house is 
to be built; another third when the said house is framed and raised; and 
the other third part when the aforesaid house may be under cover and 
weatherboarded. 

In witness whereof, we have hereunto subscribed our names, on the 
day affixed to our names. 



Here follow the names of the subscribers, which are given that we may 
cherish the memory of the generous dead and furnish an example to 
the living. 



John Ludlow, 
Moses Miller, 
John B. Smith, 
Joel Williams, 
Jeremiah Ludlow, 
John Cutter, 
Cornelius Miller, 
Samuel I'iersan, 
James Kemper, 
Wm. Miner, 
S. Miller, 
William Harrison, 
Asa Peck, 
Samuel Dick, 
Matthias Brant, 
David Logan, 
Alex. McCoy, 



Thomas Brown, 
John Darrah, 
Moses Jones, 
Jacob Reeder, 
John Thorpe, 
David E. Wade, 
Levi Woodward, 
James Dement, 
Joseph Lloyd, 
Abram Bosten, 
Daniel Bates, 
Isaac Bates, 
James Miller, 
John Lyon, 
Margaret Rusk, 
Robert Hind, 
Joseph Shaw, 



Elias Waldron, 
John Bartle, 
William Miller, 
Matthew Deary, 
Samuel Martin, 
Francis Kennedy, 
James Lyon, 
William McMillan, 
James Brady, 
William Woodward, 
Richard Benham, 
Nehemiah Hunt, 
Gabriel Cox, 
Benj. Fitzgerald, 
John Adams, 
Seth Cutter, 
James McKane, 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 



9i 



James Blackburn, 
James Wallace, 
Thomas Ellis, 
Benjamin Jennings, 
Reuben Roe, 
Thomas McGrath, 
Henry Taylor, 
James Richards, 
H. Wilson, 
Jonas Seaman, 
Elliott & Williams, 
Thomas Gibson, 
Thomas Cochran, 
J. Mercer, 
James Reynolds, 
James McKnight, 
Daniel C. Cooper, 
Israel Ludlow, 
Richard Allison, 



Samuel Williams, 
James Lowry, 
Joseph Spencer, 
James Cunningham, 
Robert Caldwell, 
Dan'l Shoemaker, 
John Gaston, 
John Cummins, 
James Burg, 
M. McDonough, 
William Peters, 
H. Marks, 
Samuel Gilman, 
J. Gilbreath, 
James Wilkinson, 
Mahlon Ford, 
J. Mentzies, 
James Kre-mer, 
Matthew Winton, 



Benj. Valentine, 
Robert Benham, 
Samuel Kitchell, 
Jabesh Wilson, 
David Long, 
David Hole, 
Isaac Felty, 
Jona Davies, 
John Blanchard, 
W. Elwes, 
John Dixon, 
Winthrop Sargent, 
John Wade, 
Joshua Shaylor, 
W. M. Mills, 
Ezekiel Sayre, 
Daniel Hole. 



In 1792, as stated, the first church edifice was built. This was a plain 
frame, about thirty by forty, roofed and weatherboarded with clap boards, 
but neither lathed, plastered nor ceiled. The floor was of boat plank, laid 
loosely upon sleepers. The seats were formed by rolling in the necessary 
number of logs, which were placed at suitable distances, and covered with 
boards, whip-sawed for the purpose, at proper spaces for seats. There was 
a breastwork of unplaned cherry boards, which served for a pulpit, behind 
which the clergyman stood on a plank supported by blocks. 

The congregation were required to attend with rifles, under penalty of a 
fine of seventy-five cents, which was actually inflicted on John S. Wallace, 
formerly auditor of this county, who had left his rifle at home through for- 
getfulness. Others also, doubtless, incurred fines on this account. 

As a specimen of the manner in which the clergyman of that day were 
sustained is annexed an original receipt : 

Received, February the 14th, 1794, of Mr. McMillan, Esq., the sum of 
three dollars, it being for Mr. Kemper's salary for the year '94, as an sub- 
scriber. Received by me, Cornelius Van Nuys. 

On the nth of June, 1794, another subscription was circulated for the 
purpose of further finishing the Presbyterian meeting-house in Cincinnati, 
and also for paling the door yard and fencing in the burying ground, to be 
paid to the same persons named as trustees. 



92 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

To this paper, in addition to those who had already subscribed to build 
the maeting-house, and who again contributed to its completion, we find 
the names of — 

Ezra F. Freeman, David Zeigler, C. Avery, 

Oliver Ormsby, Job Card, Robert Mitchell, 

Martin Baum, G. Zeatman, John Brown, 

Joseph Prince, Andrew Park, John Riddle, 

Patrick Dickey, A. Hunt & Co., Peter Kemper. 

When the property was dedicated by the proprietors they held the equit- 
able title only; the government held the legal estate, but had contracted 
with John Cleves Symmes to convey to him a large tract of land, which 
included the plat of Cincinnati, the proprietors claimed under Symmes. In 
1794 the President of the United States issued a patent to Symmes, who was 
thus invested with the legal estate; and afterward, on the 28th of December, 
1797, conveyed the lots to Moses Miller, John Thorpe, John Ludlow, James 
Lyon, Wm. McMillan, David E. Wade and Jacob Reeder, trustees for the 
Presbyterian congregation of Cincinnati. 

The church building was removed in 18/4 to Vine, below Fifth 
Street, and became what was known for many years here as " Burke's 
Church." 

It was substituted by a large brick building, which stood until a few 
years since, and was then replaced by a splendid edifice occupied by the 
First Presbyterian Society at this time. 

HOSPITALITY OF PIONEERS. 

Hospitality was one of the characteristics of the pioneers of the West; 
their houses and tables were free to all. If the good pioneer mother could 
set a table before her husband or guest with hot Indian corn bread and fried 
venison, buffalo, or bear meat, or roast wild turkey and a cup of milk, it was 
considered most bountifully supplied. The meal was baked into bread in 
various ways. There was the "Johnny Cake," baked on a board, gen 
erally about three feet long and one wide, upon which the corn dough was 
placed and the board set before the fire, leaning against a stone; or the 
thick pone or corn dodger 'baked in the '•'•Dutch Oven,'" and frequently the ho( 
cake, baked on the hoe set before the fire like the "Johnny Cake" board; 
and -the ash cake, the dough being placed between cabbage leaves and 
covered witli hot ashes. Later they had "bake-ovens" built of cat and clay 



HISTOR Y OF CINCJNNA TI. 93 

on boards raised from the ground. In this the pies and wheat bread, if 
they had any flour, were baked. 

Their laws were simple, plain, and efficient. There was no difficulty in 
enforcing them, as at present with the Sunday Law. The punishment con- 
sisted in tying the culprit to a post and inflicting a certain number of lashes 
on the bare back, or a coat of tar and feathers, being then driven through 
the streets and from the town. For the milder offenses against the morals 
of the public a ducking in the Ohio River or some pond, or being rode on 
a sharp rail through the streets; and when a case was decided upon, the 
laws were enforced stringently and efficiently. They had no police court 
juries to interfere with the execution of the laws. 

" Monongahela whisky" has been mentioned several times, but it must 
not be inferred from this that the pioneers were addicted to an excessive use 
of it. It is true that it was to be found in almost every house, and when 
neighbors called, if the old decanter, often with a cob stopper, was not set 
out, together with a pitcher of cold spring or well water, and a bowl of 
maple sugar, it was considered a slight. In the harvest field it was consid- 
ered a necessity to keep the heat from injuring the harvesters. In the 
winter the hunters carried it to keep the cold from being injurious. 

On the rough mantlepiece it was not unusual to see a bottle of ' ' tansy 
bitters" on one end, of which the whole family took a tablespoonful every 
morning to give them an appetite; on the other end was a bottle of " Rue 
bitters," of which the children were given a spoonful at night to keep 
worms away. 

Many kinds of bitters were made to be taken in sickness and always 
with "Old Monongahela." The men took their dram in the morning as an 
antifogmatic to keep off chills, at noon as an appetizer, at night as a night- 
cap to make them sleep; and yet, while it was so universally used, a 
drunken man was rarely seen, and only at such places as the "little muster" 
of the mititja on the first Monday in May, or the "big muster" on the 
third Monday in May, or at elections, were men seen drunk. Some few, 
however, would get tight whenever they could get sufficient quantities. 

Old Jonas D. was a dear lover of "Old Monongahela," and generally 
kept a good supply on hand, buying it by the barrel. On one occasion 
Jonas went into a store, where he usually dealt, and told the merchant that 
he wanted a barrel of whisky ; it was at that time selling at sixteen dollars a 



94 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



barrel. "What?" said the merchant. "Jonas, you certainly do not want 
another barrel of whisky for your own use; it is not three months since you 
bought the last one?" 

"That's all right, Robert, it ain't three months, but what in the deuce is 
a barrel of whisky in a family where there is no cow?" But he was an ex- 
ception. The whisky was rye and pure, and must be seven years old at 
least before it was considered fit to use. Seven-year old whisky was not 
made as it is at the present day — in twenty-four hours ; no adulterating drugs 
were used. Sometimes they used burnt dried peaches to give it a flavor and 
good color, and they always charred the inside of the barrel. 

At vendues the auctioneer would cry out the bids made on the article 
up for sale, and when near the time for knocking down — to induce another 
bid — would cry the bid and say a "dram to the next bidder," which not 
unfrequently got another bid. 

When corn was to be husked it was gathered with the husks on and piled 
in a long rick and a rail placed across the pile as near the middle as possible. 
Two captains were chosen, and they chose alternately from the neighbors 
present (everybody in the vicinity went to the frolic), and the forces were 
martialed on both sides and the work begun, and the side that finished his 
end first was the victor and got the bottle, and he who husked the first red 
ear of corn was privileged to kiss the prettiest girl in the party. The young 
ladies attended these gatherings for the danc« after the corn was husked and 
supper over. 

Another occasion where it was an important article was when a couple 
was married ; they did not take a trip East, but stayed at home, and the day 
after the wedding at the bride's house what was called an in/air took place 
at the home of the groom, instead of a reception as now after an Eastern 
trip. They went generally on horseback, and when approaching the home 
of the groom several young men "run for the bottle," riding over hills, 
hollows and fences at breakneck speed, and the first to arrive at the home 
of the groom was handed the bottle and rode back in triumph, holding aloft 
his prize to treat the bride and groom. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



95 



CHAPTER XVII. 

St. Clair Appointed to the Command — His Unfortunate Campaign. 

' I 'HE terrors and the annoyance of Indian hostilities still hung over the 
western settlement. The call was loud and general from the frontier 
for ample and efficient protection. Congress placed the means in the hands 
of the Executive. Major-General Arthur St. Clair was appointed com- 
mander-in-chief of the forces to be employed in the meditated expedition. 
The objects of it were to destroy the Indian settlements between the 
Miamis; to expel them from the country, and establish a chain of posts 
which should prevent their return during the war. This army was late in 
assembling in the vicinity of Fort Washington. They marched directly 
towards the chief establishments of the enemy, building and garrisoning in 
their way the two intermediate forts, Hamilton and Jefferson. After the 
detachments had been made for these garrisons the effective force that 
remained amounted to something less than two thousand men. To open a 
road for their march was a slow and tedious business. Small parties of 
Indians were often seen hovering about their march ; and some unimportant 
skirmishes took place. As the army approached the enemy's country, sixty 
of the militia deserted in a body. To prevent the influence of such an 
example Major Hamtranck was detached with a regiment in pursuit of the 
deserters. The army, now consisting of one thousand four hundred men, 
continued its march. On the third day of November, 1792, it encamped 
fifteen miles south of the Miami village. Having been rejoined by Major 
Hamtranck, General St. Clair proposed to march immediately against them. 
Half an hour before sunrise the militia was attacked by the savages and fled 
in the utmost confusion. They burst through the formed lines of the regu- 
lars into the camp. Great efforts were made by the officers to restore order, 
but not with the desired success. The Indians pressed upon the heels of 
the flying militia and engaged General Butler with great intrepidity. The 
action became warm and general, and the fire of the assailants passing 
round both flanks of the first line, in a few minutes was poured with equal 



9 6 * HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA Tl. 

fury in the rear. The artillerists in the center were mowed down ; and the 
fire was more galling, as it was directed by an invisible enemy, crouching 
on the ground, or concealed behind trees. In this manner they advanced 
toward the very mouths of the cannon, and fought with the infuriated 
fierceness with which success always animates savages. Some of the sol- 
diers exhibited military fearlessness, and fought with great bravery ; others 
were timid, and disposed to fly. With a self-devotion, which the occasion 
required, the officers, generally, exposed themselves to the hottest of the 
contest, and fell in great numbers in desperate efforts to restore the battle. 
The commanding general, though he had been for some time enfeebled with 
severe disease, acted with personal bravery, and delivered his orders with 
judgment and self-possession. A charge was made upon the savages with 
the bayonet, and they were driven from their covert, with some loss, a 
distance of 400 yards ; but as soon as the charge was suspended they 
returned to the attack. General Butler was mortally wounded, the left 
of the right wing broken, and the artillerists killed almost to a man. 
The guns were seized, and the camp penetrated by the enemy. A desperate 
charge was headed by Colonel Butler, although he was severely wounded, 
and the Indians were again driven from the camp, and the artillery recov- 
ered. Several charges were repeated, with partial success. The enemy 
only retreated, to return to the charge flushed with new ardor. The 
ranks of the troops were broken, and the men pressed together'in crowds, 
and were shot down without resistance. A retreat was all that remained to 
save the remnant of the army. Colonel Darke was ordered to charge a 
body of savages that intercepted their retreat; Major Clark with his battalion 
was directed to cover the rear. These orders were carried into effect, and 
a most disorderly flight commenced. A pursuit was kept up four miles, 
when, fortunately for the surviving Americans, the natural greediness of the 
savage appetite for plunder called back the victorious Indians to the camp, 
to divide the spoils. The routed troops continued their flight to Fort Jef- 
ferson, throwing away their arms on the road. The wounded were left 
here, and the army retired upon Fort Washington. 

In this fatal battle thirty-eight commissioned officers, and 593 non-com- 
missioned officers and privates, twenty-one commissioned officers, many 
of whom afterwards died of their wounds, and 242 non-commissioned 
officers and privates were wounded. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



97 



The savage forces in this fatal engagement were led by a celebrated chief, 
Little Turtle, who had been trained to war under the British, during the 
Revolution. So superior was his knowledge of tactics that the Indian 
chiefs, though extremely jealous of him, yielded the entire command to him, 
and he arranged and fought the battle with great combination of military 
skill. Their forces amounted to four thousand, and they stated the Ameri- 




Thayandaneca (Brant). 



cans killed at six hundred and twenty, and their own at sixty-five, but it was 
undoubtedly much greater. They took seven pieces of cannon, two 
hundred oxen, and many horses. The chief at the close of the battle bade 
the Indians forbear the pursuit of the Americans, as he said they had killed 
enough 



9 3 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



General Scott, with one thousand mounted volunteers from Kentucky, 
soon after marched against a party of the victors, at St. Clair's fatal field. 
He found the Indians rioting in their plunder, riding the oxen in the glee of 
triumph, and acting as if the whole body was intoxicated. General Scott 
immediately attacked them. The contest was short hut decisive. The 
Indians had two hundred killed on the spot. The cannon and military 
stores remaining were retaken, and the savages completely routed. The 
loss of the Kentuckians was inconsiderable. 

The reputation of the Government was now committed to the fortunes 




Mishekenoghqua (Little Turtle). 

of war. Three additional regiments were directed to be raised. On the 
motion in Congress for raising these regiments, there was an animated and 
even a bitter debate. It was urged on one hand that the expense of such a 
force would involve the necessity of severe taxation; that too much power 
was thrown into the hands of the President ; that the war had been badly 
managed and ought to have been entrusted to the militia of the West, under 
their own officers; and with more force they urged that no success could be 
of any avail so long as the British held those posts within our acknowledged 
limits, from which the savages were supplied with piotection, shelter, arms, 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



99 



advice and instigation to the war. On the other hand the justice of the 
cause as a war of defense and not of conquest was unquestionable. It was 
proved that between 1783 and 1790 no less than fifteen hundred people of 
Kentucky had been massacred by the savages or dragged into a horrid cap- 
tivity, and that the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia had suffered 
a loss not much less. It was proved that every effort had been made to 
pacify the savages without effect. They showed that in 1790, when a treaty 
was proposed to the savages at the Miami, they refused to treat, and then 
asked thirty days for deliberation. It was granted. In the interim, they 
stated that not less than one hundred and twenty persons had been killed 
and captured, and several prisoners roasted alive ; at the end of which, 
however, they refused any answer at all to the proposition to treat. Various 
other remarks were made in defense of the bill. It tried the strength of 
parties in Congress, and was finally carried. 

General St. Clair resigned, and Major Anthony Wayne was appointed to 
succeed him. This officer commanded the confidence of the Western 
people, who confided in that reckless bravery which long before procured 
him the appellation of "Mad Anthony." There was a powerful party who 
still affected to consider this war unnecessary, and every impediment was 
placed in the way of its success which that party could devise. To prove 
to them that the Government was still disposed to peace, two excellent 
officers and valuable men, Colonel Hardin and Major Truman, were 
severally dispatched with propositions of peace. They were both murdered 
by the savages. These unsuccessful attempts at negotiation, and the diffi- 
culties and delays naturally incident to the preparation of such a force, 
together with the attempts that had been made in Congress to render the 
war unpopular, had worn away so much time that the season for operations 
for the vear had almost elapsed. 



IOO HISTORY OF CINCINNATI 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Effect of St. Clair's Defeat — St. Clair Refused a Court of 
Inquiry, and Compelled to Resign — Wayne Appointed to the 
Command. 

' I 'HE defeat of St. Clair was the most terrible reverse the American arms 
ever suffered from the Indians. Even the defeat of Braddock was less 
disastrous. Braddock's army consisted of 1,200 men and eighty-six officers, 
of whom 714 men and sixty-three officers were killed or wounded. But the 
comparative losses of the two engagements represent very inadequately the 
crushing effect of the defeat of St. Clair An unprotected frontier of a thou- 
sand miles, from the Allegheny to the Mississippi, was at once thrown open 
to the attack of the infuriated and victorious savages. The peace enjoyed 
for the several preceding years had wrought a great change in the western 
settlements. The Indian hunters of the Revolutionary War had laid aside 
their arms and habits, and devoted themselves to the cultivation of the soil ; 
the block houses and forts, around which the first settlers had gathered, 
were abandoned, and cabins, clearings, and hamlets were scattered in 
exposed situations all along the border. Everywhere the settlers, unpro- 
tected and unprepared, were expecting in terror the approach of the 
savages, and everywhere abandoning their homes, or awaiting in helpless 
despair the burnings, massacres, and cruelties of Indian war. The extent 
of the consternation that pervaded the border may be inferred from the 
tone of the memorials of the people of the western counties of Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia to the governors of those States. 

"In consequence," says a committee of the citizens of Pittsburgh, " of 
the late intelligences of the fate of the campaign to the westward, the 
inhabitants of the town of Pittsburgh have convened, and appointed us a 
committee for the purpose of addressing your Excellency. The late disas- 
ter of the army must greatly affect the safety of this place. There can 
be no doubt but that the enemy will now come forward, and with more 
spirit, and greater numbers, than they ever did before, for success will give 
confidence, and secure allies." 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 



IOI 



"The alarming intelligence lately received," says the people of Western 
Virginia, "of the defeat of the army in the western country, fills our minds 
with dreadful fears and apprehensions concerning the safety of our fellow- 
citizens in the country we represent, and we confidently hope will be an 
excuse to your Excellency, whose zeal has been sa frequently evinced in be- 
half of the distressed frontier counties, for the request we are now compelled 
to make. In the course of last year upwards of fifty of our people were 
killed, and a great part of our country plundered, notwithstanding the aid 
afforded by the Pennsylvanians, who joined the Virginians for our defense. 




General Wayne. 



The success of the Indians in their late engagement with General St. Clair, 
will, no doubt, render them more daring and bold in their future incursions 
and attacks upon our defenseless inhabitants — those adjoining the county of 
Harrison, extending a hundred miles, covering the county of Monongalia — 
and we conceive that not less than sixty or seventy men will be sufficient to 
defend them. Through you, sir, we beg leave to request their assistance." 
The popular clamor against St. Clair was loud and deep. In military 
affairs the blame is most always attached to misfortune; for the greater 
number of those who judge have no rule to guide them but the event. 
Misconduct is ever inferred from the want of success, and the greatest share 



1 02 HISTOR Y OF C1NCJNNA TI. 

of blame always falls upon the principal officer. Thus it was in the case 
of St. Clair. He had suffered a great reverse, and was, therefore, accused 
by the public voice of great incompetency. Aware of the public odium 
under which he laid, he asked from the President the .appointment of a 
Court of Inquiry, to investigate his conduct. But the request was denied, 
because there were not officers enough in the service, of the proper rank, to 
constitute such a court. He then offered to resign his commission on con- 
dition that his conduct should be investigated; but the exigencies of service 
would not admit of delay, and his request was again refused, and the Presi- 




dent informed him that neither request could be granted, nor could he be 
permitted to remain as commander of the western army. 

The true causes of the disaster have been made the subject of much con- 
troversy. The Secretary of War, in his report on the state of the frontiers, 
affirms that the principal causes of the failure of the expedition were the 
deficiency of good troops according to the expectation in the earlier part of 
the year, the want of sufficient discipline according to the nature of the 
service and the lateness of the season. 

The want of discipline and experience in the troops doubtless contributed 
to, but did not occasion the disaster; of their bravery there can be no doubt. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



103 



The battle 'began at six o'clock and lasted till about half-past nine, and the 
troops, though exposed to a destructive fire from a foe so placed that they 
could not efficiently return it, nevertheless behaved with all the resolution 
and coolness it was possible for them to exhibit under the circumstances of 
the case. They were not overwhelmed, as St. Clair supposed, by superior 
numbers. The army consisted of more than fourteen hundred men; the 
Indians, according to the best accounts, did not exceed a thousand. They, 
however, fought with desperate valor, and at a great disadvantage from the 
nature of the ground and from the facilities the forest afforded for their 
favorite mode of attack. They were led, too, by the greatest chieftain of 
that age. It has been the received opinion that the leader of the con- 
federated tribes on that fatal day was Little Turtle, the chief of the Miamies; 
but from the family of that celebrated warrior and statesman, it is ascertained 
that Joseph Brant, with one hundred and fifty Mohawk braves, was present 
and commanded the warriors of the wilderness. 

The true reasons then of the disaster of the day were, doubtless, the 
surprise of the army and the consequent confusion and flight of the militia 
who were first attacked. Had the attack been expected, the troops prepared, 
all chance of confusion avoided, and had the officers who commanded been 
obeyed, with all the disadvantages of raw troops, the event might have been, 
probably would have been, wholly different. The militia, as St. Clair 
says, were a quarter of a mile in advance of the main army, and beyond the 
creek; still further in advance was Captain Slough, who, with a volunteer 
party of regulars, went out to reconnoitre; and orders had been given 
Colonel Oldham, who commanded the militia, to have the woods thoroughly 
examined by the scouts and patrols, as Indians were known to be hanging 
about the outskirts of the army. In all this St. Clair seems to have done his 
entire duty, as far as sickness would permit him ; could he have attended in 
person to the details of the command it would have been better. As St. 
Clair had resigned his position it became a very difficult question for the 
President to select a person suitable in all respects to take charge. General 
Morgan, General Wayne, General Scott of Kentucky, Colonel Darke and 
General Henry Lee were all thought of. Of them General Wayne was 
chosen, although his appointment caused, as General Lee, then Governor of 
Virginia, wrote Washington, "extreme disgust" among all orders in the Old 
Dominion. But the President had selected Wayne not hastily nor through 



I04 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

"partiality or influence," and no idle words affected him. In turn General 
Wayne moved westward to Pittsburg, and proceeded to organize the army 
destined to be the ultimate argument of the Americans with the Indian con- 
federations. Through the summer of 1792, the preparation of the soldiers 
was steadily attended to. "Train and discipline them for the service they 
are meant for," said Washington, "and do not spare powder and lead so 
the men be made marksmen." 

In December the forces now recruited and trained were gathered at a 
point about twenty miles below Pittsburg, on the Ohio River, called Legion- 
ville; the army itself having been denominated the legion of the United 
States, divided into four sub-legions, and provided with legionary and sub- 
legionary officers. Meantime, at Fort Washington (Cincinnati) Wilkinson 
had succeeded St. Clair as commandant, and in January had ordered an ex- 
pedition to examine the field of the late disastrous conflict. This body 
reached the point designated on February 1, 1792, and in a letter of Captain 
Buntin to St. Clair appears the following passage : 

"In my opinion," says Captain Buntin, "those unfortunate men who 
fell in the enemy's hands with life were used with the greatest torture, hav- 
ing their limbs torn off; and the women have been treated with the most 
indecent cruelty, having stakes as thick as a person's arm driven through 
their bodies. The first I observed when burying the dead, and the latter 
was discovered by Colonel Sargent and Dr. Brown. We found three whole 
gun carriages. The other five were so much damaged that -they were 
rendered useless. By the General's orders pits were dug in different places 
and all the dead bodies that were exposed to view or could be conveniently 
found, the snow being very deep, were buried." 

Five independent embassies asking peace were sent to the inimical tribes, 
and every possible effort made to show them that the United States wished 
to do full justice to the red man; but the victories they had gained over 
Harmar and St. Clair, and the intrigues of the British agents, closed their ears 
to all propositions of peace, and all were rejected in one form or another. 
Freeman, who left Fort Washington on the 7th of April; Truman, who left 
it May 2 2d for the Maumee, and Colonel Hardin, who, on the same day, 
started for Sandusky, although bearing flags of truce, were all murdered, 
and General Putnam who left Marietta on the 26th of June, and was at Fort 
Washington on the 2d of July, and from there proceeded to Fort Knox and 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



<°5 



Vincennes, met such of the Wabash chiefs as could be got together. He 
left Fort Washington on the 17th of August, and on the 27th of Septem- 
ber he met thirty-one chiefs, representing the Weas, Piankeshaws, Kaskas- 
kias, Peorias, Illinois, Pattowattamies, Musquitoes, Kickapoos and Eel River 
Indians, and concluded a treaty of peace and friendship. 

Putnam was the only one who reached his destination and returned alive. 



10 6 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Attack on Dunlap's Station. 

"\ A 7"E give the personal narrative of Wiseman, as a matter of preference, 
in his own words, from Cist's Cincinnati, 1859: 
I was born February 10, 1770, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, and on 
the Chesapeake Bay, where I resided for some years of my minority. In 
1786 I left in company with my elder brother, Robert, to reside in Hagers- 
town. In the fall of 1790, I enlisted in the United States service, in 
Captain Alexander Truman's company, who afterward lost his life while bear- 
ing a flag of truce to the Indians. I had been at the residence of Dr. Jacob 
Schnebly, and found Captain Truman enlisting soldiers to go to the West. 
I had long contemplated a visit to that land of promise, and thought I could 
never see it under more favorable circumstances than presented themselves 
at this time. I accosted the Captain, therefore, and inquired of him if he 
did not want another soldier? He replied that it was out of his power to 
take me, for he had neither arms, ammunition nor clothing for another re- 
cruit. I was about withdrawing when he called me back and told me that 
he had a great mind to take me anyhow in my citizens' clothes, and that 1 
should be supplied with rations from his own table. He promised, also, 
that if I would behave myself as I ought, he would be a father to me. I 
agreed to this arrangement and started with the rest, reaching Cincinnati in 
December, 1790. We reported ourselves at Fort Washington on our arrival 
to General Harmar, who commanded that post. As one of the youngest 
men in the army, I was soon put on active duty. The settlers at Dunlap 
Station, on the Great Miami, had complained to General Harmar of Indian 
depredations, and even massacre, and asked a detachment for their pro- 
tection, being in momentary expectation of an attack from the savages. 
David Gibson, one of the settlers, had been taken prisoner, and Thomas 
Larrison and William Crum chased at the peril of their lives into the fort or 
station, and the inhabitants hardly dared venture out after their cows, as 
they strayed off into the woods. Accordingly, General Harmar dispatched 
Lieutenant Kingsbury with a party of thirteen soldiers, of which I was one, 
acting as orderly sergeant. A larger body was detached as an escort to see 
us safe to the station. We all marched on foot and reached our post without 
accident or adventure. Our escort returned without loss of time to Fort 
Washington. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



107 



The settlement had been made, originally, by John Dunlap, who called it 
Colerain, after the town in Ireland from which he came. He laid it out as 
a town into lots, but at the time I refer to had left the place. It appeared 
afterward that he had no title to the land, and eventually the settlers lost 
what they had bought. The settlement or station was, however, known by 
his name, although Colerain subsequently became, as it still remains, the 
name of the township in which the ground lies. The fort or station con- 
sisted of a few cabins, lying in a square of perhaps an acre or more. These 
had been built for convenience sake facing each other, and with the roofs, 
of course, sloping outward ; the very reverse of what they should have been 
for efficient defense. The outer edges of these were so low that it was not 
uncommon for the dogs, which had been shut out, to spring from adjacent 
stumps on to the roof, and thence sideways into the enclosure. At the cor- 
ners of the square block houses had been constructed, and pickets, very 
weak and insufficient for defense against a resolute and active enemy, filled 
up the intervening spaces, inclosing the whole. There were but eight or 
ten persons, besides the regulars, capable of bearing arms, and the entire 
number of the fort, exclusive of the soldiers, did not exceed thirty souls. 

We reached our destination in the latter part of January, 1791. One of 
the first services at the station we were called on to perform was to chop 
down the trees immediately adjacent, which had been recently girdled, and 
which Lieutenant Kingsbury judged would afford advantage to an enemy in his 
approach. The underbrush had already been cleared out and burnt. These 
trees were cut down, chopped up, and intended to be rolled or carried into 
heaps and burned, so that we should have ample and open space to watch 
as well as oppose any attack that might be made. But the Indians did not 
give us the necessary time to carry our purpose into effect. This was our 
employment up to the beginning of February. 

On Saturday evening, the 5th of that month, one Sloan, who, with his 
party, had been surveying the neighborhood, was attacked by what he called 
"a scattering party of Indians," who killed one of his men, took another one 
prisoner, and wounded Sloan himself, who, with the remaining member 
of his party, sought to make his way to Fort Washington. But, wearied and 
faint with the loss of blood, and his wounds beginning to bleed afresh, he 
concluded to seek the nearer shelter to be afforded by our small stockade. 
We had no reason to apprehend the attack that was meditated upon it, and 
so secure was our little garrison that on the next — Sunday — morning, 
Lieutenant Kingsbury sent out four or five of our number to bury the dead 
man. In this feeling of perfect security, and with true soldierly hospitality, 
Kingsbury had yielded the narrow accommodations of his own quarters to 
Sloan, and having none for himself passed the night in lively and jocose 
conversation with us in our quarters. About day-dawn on Monday he 



io 8 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

went out for a moment, and we immediately heard him clapping his hands 
and crying " Indians! Indians!" 

We imagined this to be merely a ruse of our commander to put us on the 
proof, since we supposed that the sentinel himself should have given the 
alarm. Nevertheless, we sprang instantly to^ arms, without waiting, some of 
us, to put on our attire. For myself, I went out with nothing on but my 
shirt, and ran into the mill-house, a small building, in line with and not far 
from the block house. This had no chinking or daubing. This notion of 
mine was prompted by curiosity entirely, for never having hitherto seen an 
Indian, I was most anxious to look upon the red man. To my unaccus- 
tomed vision the whole face of the earth appeared, at first, to be covered 
with them, and their peculiar head-gearing of feathers and pigment, and the 
horrid jingling of the deer hoofs and horns tied around their knees, pre- 
sented a spectacle of great interest, so much as to make me forget, for the 
moment, that they were enemies and had invested us with a hostile intent. 
I perceived that they had surrounded our small fortress entirely on the land 
side, their flanks resting on the banks of the stream, on either side of us. 
Resting on my musket, I took a lengthened gaze at them, not for a moment 
thinking of firing at them. I had been here but a few minutes before one 
of the men, McVickar, came also into the mill-house. The Indians per- 
ceiving him, fired at and wounded him in the arm. Until that moment, I 
suppose, I had remained unseen by them ; but now I began to receive some 
of their attention. A musket ball, which came through the interstices of 
the logs, whistling over my head, striking and upsetting a bowl of corn 
from a shelf above me, made me think it not expedient to remain longer 
there, even to satiate my curiosity. I made my way back to_ the block 
house and put on the remainder of my clothes. As soon as this was done, 
each man was disposed by the commander to the best advantage. My 
station was at the corner of one the pickets, near the southeast corner of 
the block house, at a port-hole, where, for all that day and the ensuing 
night, without being once relieved, I was to watch our enemy and do him all 
the harm in my power. By the time I had taken my position, the Indians 
mostly had made the shelter of the logs we had left lying for them, and now 
commenced a parley. Abner Hunt, the member of Sloan's party, who had 
been taken prisoner on Saturday, with his arms pinioned behind him, was 
placed on a log three or four rods from the pickets, while Simon Girty, who 
held the cord by which he was bound, lay sheltered behind the log. 
Kingsbury was mounted on a stump, and leaned on or over the pickets, not 
more than ten feet from the port-hole where I was stationed, and I was thus 
cognizant of all that passed between them. It is not necessary to detail all 
this. Enough, that no promise of quarter could be drawn from the assail- 
ing party, at least nothing definite, and therefore nothing could for a 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



109 



moment suggest to the commander, or a single individual of the besieged, 
the idea of surrender. It was indicated in the course of the parley that 
Simon Girty was in command, that his brother George was also present, 
along with Blue Jacket and some other chiefs; that they had present some 
five hundred Indians, and that some three hundred more were in the neigh- 
borhood, and that scouts were out and guarding all the way between us and 
Fort Washington, cutting off all hope of communication or relief from that 
quarter. The parley continued, I suppose, for two hours, at least. Each 
man of our little garrison had been ordered to fire when he could take aim, 
and in execution of this order, every Indian who, during the parley, incau- 
tiously left the shelter he had taken, was made to repent it. I know that 
during the period I discharged my musket five or six times, and I recollect 
that we were cautioned not to waste ammunition, inasmuch as we had only 
twenty-four rounds per man in the fort. Girty complained of this mode of 
holding a treaty, when Kingsbury, with a big oath, and in a loud voice, 
swore he would punish the first man that fired a gun, but immediately 
added to us in a tall whisper, "Kill the rascals, if you can!" At the con- 
clusion he told Girty that if they were five hundred devils, he would never 
surrender to them, and jumped down from his position. A tremendous 
volley of musketry from our foe immediately involved us all in smoke. 
This sport continued till late in the afternoon, when they informed us, by 
Hunt, that they were only drawing off for a while for refreshment, but that 
by the time the moon went down, they would return and put every one to 
the tomahawk. We continued at our posts awaiting the event. The only 
refreshment we had during the whole time of the siege was a few handfuls 
of parched corn, which the girls, Sarah Hahn and her sister, Salome Hahn, 
Rebecca Crum, and another, by name Birket, brought round to us from 
time to time. We had not even a drop of water, none being in the fort, 
and access to the river being deemed hazardous in the presence of so 
numerous a foe. The moon went down about half an hour to an hour after 
sunset, and our assailants were as good as their word, at least in returning 
to the onset. They gave us several rounds of musketry; then setting fire to 
the brushwood we had so carefully provided, they possessed themselves 
of firebrands, which, to the number, I suppose, of more than five hundred, 
they projected, by means of their bows, into our stockade and upon the 
roofs of our buildings, intending to set them on fire. This mode of attack 
continued to be used until midnight without success, when they drew off to 
a short distance to execute upon their prisoner, Hunt, the vengeance that at 
parley they had denounced against him in the event of our failing to sur- 
render. The scene of this horrid cruelty was between the fort and the 
artificial embankment, still to be seen, but which was then covered by the 
primeval forest trees. Here they stripped him naked, pinioning his out- 



! 1 MIST OR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 

stretched hands and feet to the earth, kindling a fire on his naked abdomen, 
and thus, in lingering tortures, they allowed him to die. His screams of 
agony were ringing in our ears during the remainder of the night, becoming 
gradually weaker and weaker till toward daylight, when they ceased. 

At about daylight the Indians returned to the fort and renewed their 
volleys of musketry. A little after sunrise there was afforded to us the only 
reliei we had hitherto experienced. It was merely a change of our stations. 
Those who, up to this time, were in the open air were allowed to change 
places with those in the block houses, to resume our watchful vigilance at 
port-holes under its shelter, and near the remains of a decaying fire, which 
served to warm somewhat our chilled limbs. Into this block house, the 
largest building within the stockade, were gathered besides all the non-com- 
batants of the garrison, numbering women and children, in all perhaps 
twenty-five or thirty. Taking my station at my port-hole here, I soon dis- 
covered an Indian standing sheltered by a small tree, who, at nearly the 
same time, saw that I had discovered and was watching him. He made use 
of various artifices, hoping to draw my fire and escape, but I was wary ami 
attentive to him and determined not to be balked. He honored me with 
five or six shots without success. While my attention was thus engaged by 
my man, Lieutenant Kingsbury also entered the block house. He was im- 
mediately assailed by the cries and screams of the women and children, and 
by the anxious inquiry: "What shall we do; is there no hope?" His 
response was, as I recollect: " Ladies, we must all suffer and die together. 
1 know of no means of relief!" He began to state, in further explanation, 
that he had tried all his men and tempted them with the offer of a pecuniary 
reward to go to Kort Washington to give the alarm and bring relief, but all 
in vain, as none would go. This declaration excited my attention, and, as 
one of the small garrison, 1 knew that I had not before heard of the matter, 
and I therefore immediately subjoined: "Why, Mr. Kingsbury, you have- 
not tried me!" "True," said he, "I had forgotten you; will you go?" he 
eagerly inquired. "If you will I will give you two half joes." "Not a 
cent, sir!" was my response. And the only condition I made was that he 
should parade the rest of the garrison in front of the block house to see me 
either safely cross the river or be killed or wounded in attempting it, as 
fortune or providence would order it. To this he immediately assented, 
and went to make a verbal correction and to change the date of the letter 
he had already prepared to dispatch. 

I suppose 1 was prompted to make the offer of myself at the moment for 
this forlorn hope, as it were, by the cries of the women and children I had 
just heard. However, I had no preparation to make, and the men were 
drawn up and I was ready. This was probably between seven and ten 
o'clock in the morning. The canoe was drawn up on the beach, so as to 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. IIT 

require some little assistance readily to get it off. I do not recollect who 
rendered me this assistance, which was to be done by being somewhat ex- 
posed to the fire of the besiegers, but Mr. Hahn answers me now that it 
was himself — then a boy of fourteen years — and his father, who gave me 
their aid for this purpose. But at length I was in the boat alone, using my 
most active exertions in setting myself, by means of a pole, across the stream. 
I had need to be in a hurry, for I was in the presence of five hundred hostile 
Indians, who were honoring me with their attention in the shape of a leaden 
shower of bullets, some of which whistled by me and spent their force in the 
water, and some struck and shattered, in a small measure, my frail "dug- 
out," though, happily, none touched or injured my person. I reached the 
opposite shore, where I waited long enough to draw the canoe partly on the 
beach, when I seized my musket and put myself, as soon as possible, under 
Jhe shelter of the underwood and took my course down stream. I had been 
told that about two miles below the station there was a ripple where I could 
easily recross but if I missed that — since I could not swim — I should be 
obliged to make my way to Symmes' Station at the mouth of the river, where 
I would be as far away from Fort Washington as at Colerain. 

When I had gone, as I supposed, about two miles, I sat down and took 
a wary and cautious reconnoissance in every direction, to see, if I might, 
some of the scouts that Girty told us were occupyiug the country between 
us and Fort Washington. After satisfying myself that there were none near 
me, I stripped myself, and attempted to wade the river. I found the water 
at neck deep, and growing deeper still, when I was obliged to desist. I 
made a like attempt at two other places, but with similar success, in the cold 
water, filled, as the river was, with mush ice, when I concluded I had 
no alternative but to go to Symmes'. But, luckily, about two hundred yards 
from where I made my last abortive attempt to wade, I discovered the rip- 
ple, and was enabled to cross where the water was not more than knee 
deep. Without further obstruction, or being intercepted by Indians, I 
reached Fort Washington about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, where my Cap- 
tain, Truman, accompanied me to General Harmar's headquarters, and I 
delivered my letters. Captain Truman responded to General Harmar's 
questions, who I was, and to what company I belonged, with pride, as his, 
and that I was the youngest soldier in the army. An exorbitant dram <>!' 
brandy, which Captain T. forced me to take, and a hearty meal, for which 
I had an appetite whetted by a long fast, as well as great exertion, having 
refreshed me, the General again sent for me, and inquired if I would return 
with the party to be sent to the relief of the station. I consented on con- 
dition of being permitted to go mounted. This appeared reasonable, and 
was promised me. But since reinforcements were wanted, of a few militia 
from Columbia, I was permitted to take a night's rest. 



! 1 2 HIST OR Y OF CWCINNA TI. 

Early in the morning, on a good horse, I accompanied the body, under 
the command of Colonel Strong, which reached Colerain between one and 
two o'clock in the afternoon. We found that Girty and the Indians were in 
full retreat; having raised the siege some hour or two before. Colonel 
Strong pursued them two or three miles up the river, and came up with 
them just as the last raft of the Indians were crossing the stream. As it was 
impossible to continue the further pursuit, they escaped. 

The remains of the unfortunate Hunt, shockingly mangled and charred, 
had been, meanwhile, buried by the garrison. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



ll 3 



CHAPTER XX. 

Attack on White's Station. 

A S has already been stated, the defeat of Harmar, and especially of St. 
Clair, caused the greatest alarm all along the border, and especially 
at Marietta, and the Miami country, including Cincinnati, Columbia, and 
North Bend. Many of the citizens had been killed in these two battles, and 
there was not an adequate force at either place to defend the citizens should 
the Indians make a concentrated attack. It was exceedingly dangerous to 
leave these block houses ; and three of them had been furiously attacked in 
Hamilton County : White's Station, at Carthage ; Fort Garrard, near, and 
a little below the Union bridge, on the Little Miami ; and at Round Bottom, 
on the Muskingum above Marietta. It was necessary very soon after the 
settlement had been made, to erect block houses for the protection of the 
settlers. Fort Washington, erected by the government, was a great protec- 
tion to Cincinnati, for the Indians soon concluded they could not destroy it. 
Black Fish, a celebrated chief, stood upon Mt. Adams and viewed Fort 
Washington, at the corner of Third and Broadway, and after taking a careful 
look at it, said: "Too strong! Too strong! Indian no take that;" and 
it was never attempted. There were several others erected in the county — 
Covalt's, just below Milford ; Girard's, below Union bridge ; Fort Miami, at 
Columbia; Colerain, on the Big Miami; also, at North Bend; at Montgomery; 
White's, at Carthage, and one on Walnut Hills, on Kemper Lane, near Wind- 
sor Street, built by the Rev. James Kemper. The most serious attacks were 
those made upon Colerain Fort and White's Station. 

ATTACK ON WHITE'S STATION. 

The whole male force about the station at the time consisted of seven 
men and a boy — Captain Jacob White, Anderson Goble Daniel Flinn, and 
his two sons, Stephen and Benjamin, both full-grown men; Anderson Pryor, 
Lewis Winans, and Providence, the son of Captain White, then but ten 
years of age. John M. Wallace, who resided in a cabin on the north bank 
of the creek, was at the time on a visit with his family at Cincinnati. The 



j I4 HIST OR Y OF CI/VCINNA TI. 

widow of Moses Pryor, with her three small children, were residing with 
her brother-in-law, Andrew Pryor, opposite the station. About 5 o'clock in 
the evening the dogs belonging to the station kept up a continuous barking 
on the hill, near the residence since of William R. Morris. Andrew Coble, 
supposing the dogs had treed a 'coon, proposed to go into the woods and get 
it, but Captain White thinking it possible that there were Indians about, 
objected to any one going out Goble, however, would not listen to his 
advice, and went alone He had gone but a short distance from the station 
or block house when he was fired upon, and fell pierced by a number of 
balls. The Indians then came out from their cover. They rushed down 
the hill with their accustomed war whoop, and as they approached the sta 
tion observed Mrs. Pryor's little girl, about four years old, playing on the 
opposite bank of the creek. They at once fired at it, and it fell mor- 
tally wounded. The mother, with her three children, who were the only 
occupants of the cabin, on the opposite side of the creek (all the other in- 
mates having gone over to the station on a visit), heard the firing and went 
to the door of the cabin just in time to witness the fatal shot that struck her 
child. Her second child, a boy between two and three years old, being 
sick, she was holding in her arms, while her babe was lying asleep in a 
cradle. On seeing her little girl fall, she put down the boy, and went out 
under the lire of the Indians and bore the child into the house, only, how 
ever, to find it silent in death. 

The savages then opened fire upon the little block house, which was 
promptly returned, and the crack of the rifle was incessant for half an hour. 
There were a number of surplus guns in the station, and the women weir 
kept busy loading, while the men were thus enabled to keep up an 
almost constant fire, which made their number appear much larger. Cap- 
tain White told the women to place his hat upon a pole and run it through 
the roof of the block house, and for a short time it drew the fire of the 
savages. 

The Indians, numbering about thirty men, sheltered behind trees at sonic 
distance from the block house, came down the hill still closer with furious yells, 
as if intending to carry it by storm. They were led by a large and power- 
ful chief, who approached the block house, and whilst in the act of climb- 
ing over the fence was shot and fell inside of the enclosure. When the rest 
of the band saw their leader fall they retreated back into the woods, and 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



ll S 



kept up an irregular fire for more than an hour and left. In the early part 
of the engagement several Indians crossed the creek above and came down 
behind the three cabins on the opposite bank from the station, in one of 
which Mrs. Pryor and her children resided. On finding her little girl dead 
beyond hope, Mrs. Pryor became so distressed that for a time she lost sight 
of all danger and gave herself up to grief; but the peril was $o great there 
was no time for sorrow. On going to the cabin door she saw an Indian 
approaching only a short distance away. She first thought of grasping both 
of her children, the sick boy and the babe, and 'flying to the block house. 
A glance convinced her, however, that what was to be done must be done 
quickly, and looking at both, she snatched up her sick boy, with a hope 
that the other, being only a babe, the savages would spare it, and ran with 
all speed for the station, the Indians in full pursuit. She took the shortest 
course, and on coming to the creek plunged into the water up to her waist, 
crossed the stream and reached the station in safety with her sick boy, and 
was compelled to remain in her wet garments until morning. 

Soon after the attack was made Andrew Pryor was dispatched to Fort 
Washington for aid. He reached the fort about midnight, and returned 
with ten dragoons, each carrying behind him an infantryman. They 
hastened to the relief of the little station, but the savages had left before 
their arrival. On going over to the cabins, they found the savages had 
taken Mrs. Pryor's babe from the cradle and dashed its brains out against a 
stump near the cabin door. The soldiers followed the trail for several 
miles, but did not overtake them. 

They had entered all three of the cabins, ripped open the beds, turned 
out the feathers, and filled the ticks with clothing, coverlets, blankets, 
household goods, and other valuables, and carried them away. 

Their huge chief had fallen inside the enclosure, and putting a rope 
around his neck, he was drawn to the block house; and it was said he was 
seven feet high, and that he was skinned, wholly or partially, and razor 
strops were made of the skin of his back, one of which it is said yet 
remains in the possession of one of the pioneer families of Hamilton County. 

There was another station in Springfield Township called Tucker's 
Station, and another called Pleasant Valley Station. These stations and 
block houses became an absolute necessity to protect those who went into 
the country to clear farms and raise produce. No one was safe to live in a 



r i 6 HISTOR Y OF CINC1NNA TI. 

cabin away from a block house. When the men went out to work in the 
morning, some worked whilst others stood guard, and the women were left 
in the block houses to do the cooking, spinning, weaving, and to make the 
clothing for the family; and were all instructed in the use of the rifle to 
enable them to protect themselves and children, if attacked in the absence 
of the men. It may be asked why they ventured into the country away 
from the towns? This question can be easily answered: they had 
come to the West to seek homes for themselves and families, and provision 
was so scarce that they mus't produce more to feed their families. As has 
been already stated the first year of the settlement of Columbia, Cincinnati, 
and North Bend, no corn or other produce was raised. The troops at Fort 
Washington and other forts and block houses had largely increased the 
population to be supplied, and the settlers as well as the troops were com- 
pelled to subsist almost entirely on wild game and roots, such as bear grass 
and other bulbous roots. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. II? 



CHAPTER XXI. 
Mobs, Riots and Murders by Indians in Cincinnati and Vicinity. 

T A yTHILST these attacks were made on block houses and stations in the 
County of Hamilton, and the settlers murdered, Cincinnati was not 
exempt from such troubles. Although there were no police officers in Cin- 
cinnati during the past century, and many lawless spirits existed in the com- 
munity, the force of public sentiment, always strongest when the population 
is not so large that individuals can hide themselves in a crowd, sufficed, in 
the early years of Cincinnati, promptly to suppress those popular out- 
breaks, which, in later years, have for the moment defied the public 
authorities. 

The first disturbance of this sort occurred on the 12th of February, 1792. 
Lieutenant Thomas Pasteur, belonging to the garrison at Fort Washington, 
having quarreled with John Bartle, who kept a store where the Spencer 
Hotel, at the corner of Broadway and Front, now stands, decoyed him on 
a pretence of business to the garrison, and falling on him there in the presence 
of his myrmidons beat him very severely. Bartle prosecuted him for the 
outrage, and his attorney, Mr. Blanchard, exhibited the lieutenant on the 
trial in a light so contemptible as to draw on himself the indignation of the 
latter and a visit of a sergeant and thirty private soldiers to inflict personal 
chastisement on the lawyer and all who might be disposed to defend him or 
his cause. 

An affray took place on Main Street, in and about McMillan's office, 
between Front and Second Streets, between the military and some of the 
citizens, eighteen in number, in which McMillan, who was a magistrate, 
with Colonel John Riddle, were particularly active, and drove the 
soldiers off. 

The interference of the military naturally created great excitement, and 
General Wilkinson, then in command at Fort Washington, reduced the 
sergeant to the ranks, and would have inflicted further punishment had it 



! j 3 HI ST OR Y OF CINCINNA TI 

not clearly appeared that the party acted under orders. He also issued the 
following general order: 

Headquarters, Fort Washington, ") 
February 13, 1792. } 
The riot in the town of Cincinnati yesterday, and the outrage committed 
by a party of soldiers on the person of a magistrate of this territory, is a dis- 
honor to the military and an indignity to the National Government, which 
demands that the most exemplary punishment should be inflicted on the 
perpetrators. Although the Commandant cannot admit the idea that any 
gentleman in commission who wears the garb of honor could be instrumental 
or accessory to this flagitious transaction, yet the circumstances of a sergeant 
and twenty or thirty men from the same company, leaving the garrison in a 
body, as has been represented to the Commandant, carries with it an aspect 
of premeditation, and may subject the officer commanding such company to 
undue suspicions and censures. To avert such consequences in future, and 
to restrain the licentious habits of the soldiery, the Commandant calls for the 
firm co-operation and support of his officers, and orders that all duties beyond 
the walls of the garrison, whether for water, wood or provisions, must be 
done by detachment, under a non-commissioned officer, who shall be answer- 
able for the conduct of such detachment. No private is to pass the gateway 
on any other pretence without a special commission from the commanding 
officer. The Commandant laments that he should be reduced to the neces- 
sity of exerting so rigid a system of police, but he considers it indispensably 
necessary, not only to the good of the service but the honor of the corps. 
By order, John Wade, 

Ensign, Post Adjutant. 

Lieutenant Pasteur was tried at the General Quarter Sessions the suc- 
ceeding year and was sentenced to a fine of three dollars for the assault. 

There was only one more disturbance here of the public peace during 
the past century. 

In the spring of 1794, and while General Anthony Wayne was marching 
north to meet and chastise the hostile Indians, and erecting military forts in 
his line of advance to protect the country in his rear, a detachment of vol- 
unteers from Kentucky, accompanied by some hundred, more or less, 
friendly Indians from the Mississippi region, encamped for a few days in 
the vicinity of Cincinnati, preparatory to pushing forward to reinforce the 
army of the North. 

These Indians were encamped on Deer Creek, on the spot now occu- 
pied by Ryan's pork house. They brought with them a young woman, who 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



119 



had been taken captive in some border incursion into Western Pennsylvania. 
It was supposed she had relatives in Cincinnati, which did not prove to be 
the case. But there were two or three individuals who knew her friends in 
Pittsburg, being themselves of that neighborhood • and one of them 
succeeded in ransoming her from the Indians by the payment of a barrel of 
Monongahela whisky. The exchange occurred at a tavern on Broadway, 
just above Bartle's store, and the Indians, who had been drinking while the 
barter was pending, had a thorough frolic of it when put in possession of 
the whisky. Next day, a large share of the liquor having been drank, 
they became dissatisfied with the exchange, and were for retaking the girl 
by force of arms. This was resisted, of course, peaceably, but firmly, 
by those into whose custody she had passed, who were Irishmen from Penn- 
sylvania, with several of their countrymen, and other individuals resident 
there. The girl had been secreted, so that the Indians could not discover 
her retreat At this period the east side of Broadway commenced at a 
point about twenty or thirty feet from Bartle's corner, opposite it, widening 
so rapidly that at the distance of half way to Cromwell's corner, Second and 
Broadway, the street was wider than even at present, its east side being 
occupied with the various artificer shops belonging to the garrison. The 
Indians came down Broadway to the number of perhaps fifty, and at the 
narrow part of the street were met and confronted by their opponents ; but 
after the stones, or rocks, as they were called, lying about had been picked 
up and thrown, the Irish contrived to gather up shillalahs, and, although 
greatly inferior in numbers, drove their enemies up Broadway clear to the 
hill. Isaac Anderson, a well known citizen of that day, who had been 
taken captive in Laughery's defeat, and always bore a grudge against the 
whole race of red skins, was in the thickest of this fight. Captain Prince, 
who commanded the garrison at that period, sent out a detachment of the 
troops to quell the disturbance, but it was all over by the time they readied 
the ground. 

The row of log cabins on the east side, in front of which this engagement 
took place, received from the circumstance the name of Battle Row, which 
it retained, until 18 10, when these houses were pulled down to make way 
for the buildings put up by John H. Piatt. 

The girl was afterward restored to her friends in Pennsylvania, and was 
still living at comparatively a recent date. 



1 2 o HIS TOR V OF CINCINNA Tl. 

In 1 791 William Harris went, in company with Colonel John Riddle, to 
clear ground for a corn field. It comprehended in its bounds the ground on 
Plum Street, south of the corporation line, Washington Park. "We had a 
small dog with us. One day, the 21st of May, we had been at work as usual, 
and had sat down to rest at the foot of a large tree, when, hearing a slight 
rustling through the spicewood bushes, I told Harris there were Indians at 
hand. He laughed at the idea. I hissed the dog on, who bounded into the 
bushes, barking at a great rate, and returned in a short time with his tail and 
ears down, and manifesting other symptoms of fear. We then sprang 
up and made a circuit through the bushes, so as to get between the Indians, 
if there were such there, and the town. In this way we had just regained 
the path, several rods below where we were, when we heard them crossing 
it near the spot we had left. We hurried into Cincinnati as fast as possible, 
and found soon after that Benjamin Van Cleve had been shot at, and Joseph 
Cutter, who was at work with him clearing an out-lot, captured and carried 
off by the Indians. Cutter was never more heard of. The lot they 
were working in cornered with Colonel Riddle's, near a spot in the Miami 
( anal, which is crossed by a high bridge opposite Mason Street." 

A party from Cincinnati made immediate pursuit with a dog, which 
made out the trace. Cutter had lost one of his shoes, so that his tracks 
could be readily observed in the marshy bottoms along the water course. 
The Indians were followed upon full run until dark, when the pursuit was 
given up. It was afterward ascertained that the savages had lralted two 
miles further out and encamped for the night. The pursuit was resumed 
next day, but to no purpose. 

On the 1st of June of the same year, Van Cleve having returned to the 
occupation of his out-lot, and working there in company with two others, 
the Indians again made their appearance. The party took to flight, making 
their way to the settled parts of Cincinnati. Two of them made their 
escape, but Van Cleve, who had passed them in the race, and at the time 
was three hundred yards or more in advance, was intercepted at a fallen 
tree top, by an Indian who sprang on him from behind the ambuscade. 
Van Cleve was seen to throw the savage and the Indian to plunge a knife 
twice or thrice into the side of his antagonist, but, perceiving the approach of 
the whites, he hastily stripped off the scalp and made his escape to his party 
in the rear. When the two fugitives got up, Van Cleve was entirely lifeless. 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. x 2 1 

The same day a party from the garrison, consisting of Sergeant Hahn, 
a corporal, and a young man who lived in Colerain, started to Dunlap's 
Station on the Miami. They were engaged in driving a cow out to that 
post, and had imprudently fastened a bell to her neck. On his way the 
Sergeant called on Riddle and paid him three dollars on account of a black- 
smithing bill he owed for some time. He said, ' ' You had better pay me 
more, the Indians will get the rest." "Never tear," was his careless reply. 
In the course of two hours afterward he had a bullet put through him, his 
scalp taken, and the residue of his money carried off. 

These were the last instances in which a savage rifle was fired within the 
present limits of Cincinnati, later depredations being connected with the 
bow and arrow, which enabled them to destroy cattle while prowling 
through the streets by night, which frequently occurred, without creating 
an alarm. On one of these visits they shot an arrow with a stone head 
into an ox with such force that it went entirely through the carcass. Steal- 
ing horses from this time until Wayne arrived, in 1793, constituted the 
principal injury inflicted by our red brethren upon their white neighbors in 
Cincinnati. 

Colonel Biddle said that he had taken his jug out with him to the lot, 
and was determined that the Indians should not have it ; when he ran into 
the bushes to get it, the Indians passed him, and he always said that he 
believed that his "old brown jug saved his life." 

In the month of August, 1791, a man named Fuller, with his son 
William, a lad sixteen years of age, or thereabout, was in the employ of 
John Matson, Sr., and in that capacity the Fullers accompanied Matson, a 
brother of his, and a neighbor, George Cullum, to the Big Miami to 
build a fish dam in its waters, at a place about two miles from North Bend. 
Old Fuller sent his son, toward night, to take the cows home, and for sev- 
eral days the neighborhood turned out to hunt him, suspecting that he had 
been taken by the Indians. 

No trace of him was, however, obtained, nor anything heard of him for 
nearly four years, when Wayne's treaty afforded an opportunity for those 
who had relatives captured by the Indians, to ascertain their fate. Old 
Fuller, under the hope of learning something respecting his son, accompa- 
nied a party to Fort Greenville, and spent a week making inquiry among 
the Indians present, but to no purpose. One day, being in conversation 



122 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

with Christopher Miller, one of Wayne's spies, and who had been taken 
captive himself in early years and brought up among the Indians, he was 
describing his son's personal appearance, as being heavy built, cross-eyed, 
and a little lame, when Miller exclaimed: '' I can tell you where he is." 
He then went on to say that he had himself made him a prisoner; that he 
knew where he was, and if he would come back in three weeks, he would 
produce him there. Fuller returned accordingly, and obtained his son, who 
accompanied him home. 

CAPTURE OF ni.iVER SPF.NCKR. 

On the 7th day of July, in the afternoon, Jacob bight, a Mr. Clayton, 
Mrs. Coleman, and young Oliver Spencer, thirteen years of age, and one of 
the garrison soldiers, started in a small canoe to Columbia. The soldier was 
v< r\ drunk, and made the canoe give a lurch, and he tumbled out, but as 
the water was not deep reached the shore, and laid down under the willows. 
Young Spencer becoming afraid, got out and walked along the shore, while 
Light poled the canoe, and Clayton used the paddle to help propel it along. 
1 ,igh1 remarked that the soldier would be good food for the Indians. Scarcely 
had he spoken before their ears were saluted with the sharp crack of two 
rifles lired by two Indians on the shore. Clayton was shot, and fell into 
the river, and Light was wounded by the ball striking the paddle and 
glancing, striking him in the arm. Mrs. Coleman was sitting in the middle 
of the canoe. One of the Indians scalped Clayton. Light jumped in the 
river and made for the Kentucky shore, and Mrs. Coleman jumped in the 
water, preferring death by drowning to capture by Indians; and, as was the 
fashion then, had on heavy cpiilted underskirts, which buoyed her up, and, 
finding she did not sink, paddled with her hands down the river to Deer 
Creek, where she landed, and holding to the willows on Peer Creek 
bank, crossed it, and went to a friend's on Front Street, where she obtained 
a change of clothing. 

The Indians seized young Spencer, and saying, " Squaw, drown ! " Par- 
ties on the Kentucky shore hearing the guns, ran down to the river, 
alarmed the red skins, and they made over the hills with him and look him 
to their town on the Maumee, where he remained for eight months, until 
his father ransomed him for $125, and brought him back to Cincinnati, 
where he resided for many years, a prominent citizen, and died there. 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 12 x 



CHAPTER XXII. 

William Henry Harrison appointed by President Washington 
Ensign of First Regiment United States Infantry — Reports to 
General St. Clair at Fort Washington — Wayne Organizes 
Legion of the United States — Wayne's Campaign — Battle of 
"Fallen Timbers" on the Maumee — Treaty of Peace at 
Greenville, Ohio, with the Indians — End of Six Year's 
Indian War — Colonel Elliott Killed. 

JUST as the defeated, dispirited remnants of St. Clair's army were strag- 
gling into Cincinnati, an event transpired which was destined to have a 
powerful influence, not only on the settlements in the Miami country, and 
of Cincinnati, but on the destiny of the whole Northwest-, and that was the 
arrival at Fort Washington of William Henry Harrison as an ensign of the 
First Regiment United States Infantry, November, 1 791. It is not neces- 
sary in this place to more than briefly refer to the active and efficient part 
he took in the battles which finally gave peace to the Western country. 
Having reported to General St. Clair, he immediately devoted himself 
to the acquisition of such information and perfection in military tactics 
as would prepare him to successfully perform such duties as might be 
assigned him. 

The first important duty entrusted to him was the command of a convoy 
of twenty men, detailed to deliver stores to Fort Hamilton by pack-horses. 
It was a responsible and hazardous duty, in exceedingly inclement weather. 
The country was overrun with savages, who, since the disastrous defeat of 
St. Clair, were hanging around all the settlements and followed the frag- 
ments of the army to the very walls of Fort Washington; nevertheless, 
young Harrison promptly accepted the trust and so successfully performed 
the duties to the satisfaction of the General that he was publicly thanked. 

In 1793 General Wayne, quick to see military talent, appointed him his 
second aid, and in his report of the battle of the "Fallen Timbers," to the 
Secretary of War, especially commended him for his gallantry and efficiency; 
and after the peace of Greenville in 1795, when the army returned to Fort 



124 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



Washington, having been promoted to Captain, he was placed in command 
of the fort. 

The successful career of young Harrison from an ensign of the First 
Regiment United States Infantry in 1 791, to the Presidential chair in 1840, 
will be noticed as this work progresses, as his whole life was so intimately 




Logan. 



connected with the growth and prosperity, not only of Cincinnati but of 
the Northwest. 

Many persons were murdered by the savages between Cincinnati and 
Fort Hamilton. In 1794 Colonel Elliott, a contractor for Wayne's army, was 
coming from Hamilton to Cincinnati, accompanied by his servant. He was 
a very large man, weighing, it is said, more than three hundred pounds, 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



125 



and wore a large wig. When some four miles from Fort Hamilton, on what 
is now the Winton Road, he was shot and killed by a party of Indians. 
His servant fled back to Hamilton, followed by the Colonel's horse. One 
of the Indians, said to have been a chief, ran to scalp him. Seizing the 
hair, and about to apply the scalping knife, the wig came off; he looked at 




Tecumseh. 



it with astonishment for a moment, and exclaimed, "D — n lie." The next 
day a party came out to recover the body, and having placed it in a coffin, 
were about to start for Cincinnati, when a volley was fired and the servant 
fell almost in the very spot his master had fallen the day before, from 
Colonel Elliott's horse, which he was riding, the horse again running back 
to Fort Hamilton. The body was afterward brought to Cincinnati and 



I2 6 HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 

buried in the burying ground of the First Presbyterian Church, at the 
corner of Fourth and Mam Streets, and afterward removed to the Twelfth 
Street burying ground (Washington Park), by his son, over which he erected 
a monument. It has since been removed to Spring Grove Cemetery, 
where it now lies. 

As has been stated, General Wayne spent the winter of 1792-93 at 
1 -egionville, near Pittsburg, in collecting and organizing his army. 

On the 30th of April, 1793, the Army moved down the Ohio River to 
Cincinnati, and encamped about where Fifth and Mound Streets intersect, 
and was called "Camp Hobson's Choice," because, as the river was very 
high, covering the bottoms, this was the only spot out of water suitable for 
the encampment. The large mound at that point was within the lines and 
about the center of the camp. General Wayne had some eight feet cut 
from the top of it, on which he put a sentry box. From it the whole vicin- 
ity could be observed. 

Here General Wayne directed all his energies to drilling and disci- 
plining his troops, and cutting roads and collecting supplies through the 
[ndian country, and in making preparations for an immediate and active 
campaign, should the efforts of the Government then being made to con- 
clude a lasting peace with the hostile tribes be unsuccessful. 

On the 5th of October he addressed the following letter to General 
Knox, the then Secretary of War : 

"Agreeably to the authority vested in me by your letter of the 17th of 
May, 1793, I have used every measure in my power to bring forward the 
mounted volunteers of Kentucky, as you will observe by the enclosed cor- 
respondence with his Excellency, Governor Shelby, and Major-General 
Scott upon this interesting occasion. I have even adopted their own propo- 
sition by ordering a draft of the Militia. Add to this that we have a con- 
siderable number of officers and men sick and debilitated from fevers and 
other disorders incident to all armies. But this is not all; we have recently 
been visited by a malady called the influenza, which has pervaded the whole 
line in a most alarming and rapid degree. Fortunately this complaint has 
not been fatal except in a few instances, and I have now the pleasure of 
informing you that we are generally recovering, or in a fairway; but our 
effective force will be much reduced. After leaving the necessary garri- 
sons at the several posts, which will generally be composed of sick and 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



127 



invalids, I shall not be able to advance beyond Fort Jefferson with more 
than twenty-six hundred regular effectives, officers included. What auxil- 
iary force we shall have is yet to be determined; at present their numbers 
are only thirty-six guides and spies and three hundred and sixty mounted 
volunteers. 

"This is not a pleasant picture, but something must be done immedi- 
ately to save the frontiers from impending savage fury. I will therefore 
advance to-morrow with the force I have, in order to gain a strong position 
about six miles in front of Fort Jefferson, so as to keep the enemy in check 
by exciting jealousy and apprehension for the safety of their own women 
and children until some favorable circumstance or opportunity may present 
to strike with effect. 

"The present apparent tranquility on the frontiers and at the head of 
the line is a convincing proof to me that the enemy is collecting in force to 
oppose the legion, either on its march, or some unfavorable position for the 
cavalry to act in." 

On the 23d of October he wrote again from his camp on the Great 
Miami, six miles beyond Fort Jefferson : 

"I have the honor to inform you that the legion took up its line of 
march from ' Hobson's Choice' on the 7th instant, and arrived at this place 
in perfect order and without a single accident at ten o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the 13th, when I found myself arrested for want of provisions. 

" Notwithstanding this defect I do not despair of supporting the troops in 
our present position, or rather at a place called Stillwater, at an intermediate 
distance between the field of St. Clair's battle and Fort Jefferson. The 
safety of the western frontiers, the reputation of the legion, the dignity and 
interest of the nation, all forbid a retrograde maneuver, or giving up one 
inch of ground we now possess, until the enemy are compelled to sue for 
peace. The greatest difficulty which at present presents itself is that of 
furnishing a sufficient escort to secure our convoys of provisions, and other 
supplies from insult and disaster, and at the same time retain a sufficient 
force in camp to repel the attacks of the enemy, who appear to be desperate 
and determined. We have recently experienced a little check to our convoys, 
which may probably be exaggerated into something serious by the tongue 
of fame before this reaches you. The following is the fact: Lieutenant 
Lowry, of the sub-legion, and Ensign Boyd of the first, with a command 



128 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



consisting of ninety non-commissioned officers and privates, having in 
charge twenty wagons belonging to the Quartermaster General's depart- 
ment, loaded with grain, and one of the contractor's wagons, loaded with 
stores, were attacked on the morning of the 17th instant about seven miles 
advanced of Fort St. Clair by a party of Indians. Those gallant young 
gentlemen (who promised at a future day to be ornaments to the profes- 
sion), together with thirteen non-commissioned officers and privates 
bravely fell after an obstinate resistance against superior numbers, having 
been abandoned by the greater part of the escort upon the first discharge. 



<^l:Xi&£& 







Monument to Lieutenant Lowry, near Eaton, Ohio. 

The savages killed or carried off about seventy horses, leaving the wagons 
and stores standing in the roads, which have all been brought into camp 
without any other loss or damage except some trifling articles. (This was 
near Katon, Ohio, where a monument was erected to these brave men.) A 
great number of men, as well as officers, have been left sick and debilitated 
at the several garrisons with influenza. Among others, General Wilkinson 
has been dangerously ill. He is now at Fort Jefferson, and on the recovery. 
I hope he will be soon sufficiently restored to take his command in the 
legion." 



HISTOR Y OF CINCINNA TI. 129 

The approach of winter induced General Wayne to dismiss the Ken- 
tucky militia, and go into winter quarters with the regular troops, which he 
did by erecting Fort Greenville, near the site of the present town of Green- 
ville, where he established his headquarters. 

On the 23d and 24th of December a detachment was sent forward to 
take possession of the field of St. Clair's defeat. They arrived upon the 
spot on Christmas day. Six hundred skulls were gathered up and buried. 
When the troops went to lay down in their tents they had to scrape the 
bones together and carry them out to make room to make their beds. 
Here they built Fort Recovery. 

During the early months of 1794 General Wayne was steadily engaged 
in preparing everything for a severe blow when the time come. On the 
26th of July General Scott, with some sixteen hundred mounted men from 
Kentucky, joined Wayne at Greenville, and on the 28th the legion moved 
forward. On the 8th of August the army was near the junction of Au Glaize 
and Maumee, at Grand Glaize, and proceeded at once to build Fort 
Defiance, where the rivers meet. The Indians had hastily abandoned their 
towns upon hearing of the approach of the army from a runaway member 
of the Quartermaster's corps, who was afterwards taken at Pittsburg. It 
had been General Wayne's plan to reach the headquarters of the savages, 
Grand Glaize, undiscovered; and in order to do this he had caused two 
roads to be cut, one toward the foot of the rapids (Roche De Bout), the 
other to the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, while he pressed for- 
ward between the two; and this stratagem he thinks would have been suc- 
cessful but for the deserter referred to. 

While engaged upon Fort Defiance the American commander received 
full and accurate accounts of the Indians, and the aid they would receive 
from the English and Canadian volunteers from Detroit and elsewhere, and 
considering the spirit of his troops, officers and men, regulars and volun- 
teers, he determined to march forward, and settle matters at once 

Yet true to the advice given by Washington, he sent Christopher Miller, 
who had been naturalized among the Shawnees and had been taken prisoner 
on the nth by Wayne's spies, as a special messenger offering peace. 

Unwilling to waste time the troops moved forward on the 15th, and on 
the 1 6th met Millei returning with the message from the Indians to the effect 
that if the Americans would wait ten days at Grand Glaize they would decide 



'3° 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



for peace or war, to which Wayne replied only by marching straight on. 
On the 18th the legion had advanced forty-one miles from Grand Glaize, 
and being near the long looked for foe, began to throw up some slight works 
called Fort Deposit, wherein to place the heavy baggage during the expected 
battle. On that day five of Wayne's spies, among whom was May, the man 
who had been sent after Truman and had pretended to desert to the Indians, 
rode into the camp of the enemy; in attempting to retreat again his horse 
fell and he was captured. The next day, the day before the battle, he was 
tied to a tree and a mark was made over his heart and he was shot at as a 
target. 

On the 19th the army still labored on the works. On the 20th at seven 
or eight o'clock, all baggage having been left behind, the white forces moved 
down the north bank of the Mauniee; the legion on the right, its flank 
covered by the Maumee; one brigade of mounted volunteers on the left, 
under Brigadier-General Todd, and on the other in the rear under Brigadier- 
General Barbee, A select battalion of mounted volunteers moved in front 
of the legion, commanded by Major Price, who was directed to keep suf- 
ficiently advanced so as to give timely notice for the troops to form in case 
of action, it being yet unknown whether the Indians decided for peace or 
war. 

During this time the chiefs of the several tribes in council discussed the 
question of peace or war; but having been successful against Harmar and 
St. Clair they were for war, except Little Turtle, who had command of the 
Indians against Harmar and St. Clair. He advised against going to battle, 
saying: "You have been successful twice, but you cannot always expect to 
succeed; you have to fight an officer now who never sleeps; the night and 
the day to him are alike." They did not heed his advice. 

After advancing about five miles Major Price's corps received so severe a 
fire from the enemy, who were secreted in the woods and high grass, as to 
compel them to retreat. The legion was immediately formed in two lines, 
principally in a close thick wood which extended for miles on its left and 
for a considerable distance in front, the ground being covered with old fallen 
timber, probably caused by a tornado, which rendered it impracticable for 
the cavalry to act with effect, and afforded the enemy the most favorable- 
covert for their mode of warfare. 

The savages were formed in three lines within supporting distances of 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



131 



each other, and extending to near two miles at right angles with the river. 
General Wayne in his official report says : "I soon discovered from the 
weight of their fire and extent of their lines that the enemy were in full force 
in front, in possession of their favorite ground and endeavoring to turn our 
left flank. I therefore gave orders for the second line to advance and 
support the first, and directed Major-General Scott to gain and turn the 
right flank of the savages with the whole of the mounted volunteers by a 
circuitous route; at the same time ordered the front line to advance and 
charge with trailed arms and rouse the Indians from their coverts at the 
point of the bayonet, and when up to deliver a close and well directed fire 
on their backs, followed by a brisk charge so as not to give them time to 
load again. I also ordered Captain Campbell, who commanded the legionary 
cavalry, to turn the left flank of the enemy next to the river, and which 
afforded a favorable field for that corps to act in. All these orders were 
obeyed with spirit and promptitude, but such was the impetuosity of the first 
line of infantry that the Indians and Canadian militia and volunteers were 
driven from all their coverts in so short a time that although every possible 
exertion was used by the officers of the second line of the legion and by 
Generals Scott, Todd and Barbee, of the mounted volunteers, to gain their 
proper positions, but part of each could get up in season to participate in 
the action ; the enemy being driven in the course of an hour more than two 
miles, through the thick woods already mentioned, by less than one half 
their number. From every account the enemy amounted to two thousand 
combatants; the troops actually engaged against them were short of nine 
hundred. This horde of savages with their allies abandoned themselves to 
flight, and dispersed with terror and dismay, leaving our victorious army in 
full and quiet possession of the field of battle which terminated under the 
influences of the guns of the British garrison, as you will observe by the 
enclosed correspondence between Major Campbell, the commandant, and 
myself upon the occasion. 

"The bravery and conduct of every officer belonging to the army, from 
the generals down to the ensigns, merit my highest approbation. There 
were, however, some whose rank and situation placed their conduct in a 
very conspicuous point of view, and which I observed with pleasure and 
the most lively gratitude, among whom I must mention Brigadier-General 
Wilkinson and Colonel Hamtranck, the commandants of the right and left 



132 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI. 



wings of the legion. To those I must add the names of my faithful and 
gallant aids-de-camp, Captains DeButt and T. Lewis and Lieutenant Har- 
rison, who, with the Adjutant-General Major Mills, rendered the most essen- 
tial service by communicating my orders in every direction, and by their 
conduct and bravery exciting the troops to press to victory. 

"We remained three days on the banks of the Maumee, during which 
time all the houses and cornfields were consumed and destroyed for a con- 
siderable distance above and below Fort Miami, as well as within pistol 
shot of the garrison (British), who were compelled to remain quiet spec- 
tators of this general devastation and conflagration, among winch were 
the house, stores and property of Colonel McKee, the British Indian 
Agent and principal stimulator of the war now existing between the United 
States and savages." 

On the 14th of September the army marched from Defiance towards 
Miami village at the junction of the St. Mary and St. Joseph, which it 
reached on the 17th, and on the 18th General Wayne selected a site for a 
fort. On the 2 2d of October the fort was completed and garrisoned by a 
detachment under Major Hamtranck, who gave it the name of Fort Wayne, 
now the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. During this period the army suffered 
much from sickness and want of provision — so much so that a pint of salt, 
it is said, was sold on the 24th of September for six dollars. On the 14th 
of October the mounted volunteers from Kentucky, who had become dis- 
satisfied and mutinous, were moved to Fort Washington and immediately 
mustered out of the service and discharged. On the 28th of October the 
legion marched from Fort Wayne to Greenville, where the General again 
established his headquarters. 

During the month of June the representatives of the northwestern tribes 
began to gather at Greenville, and on the 16th of that month Wayne met 
the Delawares, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, and Eel River Indians, and the 
conference which lasted until the 10th of August commenced. On the 21st 
of June Buckingahelas arrived, and on the 23d the Little Turtle and other 
Miamis; on the 13th of July Tarke and ether Wyandotte chiefs, and upon 
the 1 8th Blue Jacket, with thirteen Shawnees, and Masass with twenty 
Chippewas. The treaty then made is dated August 3, 1795, which closed 
the old Indian war of the west, which had lasted for six years, It was rati- 
fied by the Senate of the United States December 22, 1795. Thus ended 



HISTORY OF CINCINNATI 



133 



one of the most remarkable campaigns in the history of our country, not 
only for the ability with which it was conducted, but also in its results. It 
gave peace to the Northwest, subdued an enemy that for many years had 
prevented the peaceful settlement and development of one of the most fertile 
territories then known to man, and established an empire in itself. The 
pioneers could now leave the block houses and forts, and clear and cultivate 
the land, and literally " turn their swords into plowshares, and the spears 
into pruning hooks," and live in peace under the banner of civil and 
religious liberty guaranteed by that greatest of ordinances — of 1787 — ever 
penned by man. Cincinnati, then but a village of ninety-five log cabins, and 
ten or twelve rough log houses, was soon to become the centre of a lucrative 
trade of an extensive and fertile territory on every side — its population 
scarcely five hundred, and composed of a large number who only awaited 
the result of Wayne's campaign to determine whether they remain, return 
east, or seek homes elsewhere, where they would be protected from savage 
barbarity. Wayne's campaign decided the issue, and resulted in the assur- 
ance of their safety and the rapid settlement of the territory northwest of 
the Ohio. 

From this period dates the history of Cincinnati as a business place. 
All the privations, hardships and dangers suffered by the pioneers they 
endured with a heroism unparalleled in the history of any country. They 
have passed away and lie in the burying-grounds and battle-fields of the 
west, but their works live after them. 

" Illustrious men! though slumbering in the dust, 
You still are honored by the good and just. 
Posterity will shed a conscious tear, 
And pointing, say, ' There lies a pioneer.' " 

The Cut of toe First Presbyterian Church, page 88, represents 
it as it was when removed to Vine street, in 1814 instead of 1804. 



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